The media appear not to, but Melania Trump has lingering questions about the assassination attempt on her husband. 

And Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is one of the few voices in power asking those questions. 

“The attempt to end my husband’s life was a horrible, distressing experience,” the former first lady says in a short, solemn video.

“Now the silence around it feels heavy. I can’t help but wonder: Why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech? There is definitely more to this story, and we need to uncover the truth.”

It sounds as if Ms. Trump might believe would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks didn’t act alone.

The Heartlander asked Hawley, who has conducted his own investigation and been sought out by a series of whistleblowers, whether he thinks Crooks acted alone.

“Well, I don’t know what to think at this point, I’ll just be honest with you, because what we have been told by Secret Service and FBI over and over turns out to be false,” Hawley says. 

“For example, the Secret Service director testified under oath that it was a Secret Service counter-sniper who disabled and then ultimately killed Crooks, the shooter. What we now know, actually, it was a local counter-sniper who first took the shot that took out Crooks’s firearm. 

“Now, either the director of the Secret Service didn’t know that when he testified before Congress, which in itself is damning, or he lied to us.  

“That is one example. And I could multiply those by the dozens, of the kind of half-truths or just outright falsehoods we have gotten over and over. And I just think that the mentality at that agency in the leadership appears to be ‘circle the wagons; keep everybody safe from accountability.’ 

“The idea that the leaders who were in charge that day at the rally have not been at least put on leave – they really, frankly, ought to all be fired – is astounding to me. And yet that’s where we are.”

Where have media, D.C., gone?

The media and much of Washington, D.C., seem to have moved on from the July 13 attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally, which tragically killed one of his supporters and seriously wounded two others.

Why – when a former president was shot in the ear and very nearly killed, were it not for a providential turn of his head?

“Well, I think the media doesn’t want to talk about it because they think it helps Trump, which, of course, is absurd,” Hawley says. “I mean absurd – the idea that you would refuse to cover an assassination attempt on a former president, a presidential candidate. And by the way, let’s not forget the brave American who was murdered, the others who were seriously, critically injured. 

“We need to get answers here. And I think the media wants to sweep it under the rug.

“And the Democrats, they wanna protect the bureaucracy. I mean, they wanna protect the Secret Service. They wanna protect the FBI. Why would you protect dysfunctional bureaucrats who aren’t doing their jobs? 

“I think about what the rank and file Secret Service members have told me as they have come forward. They have said they’re worried about their organization. They don’t have confidence in their leadership. 

“The best way to get this problem fixed, the best way to get these organizations fixed, is to hold people at the top accountable. That’s what we’ve got to do. Some of these people need to be fired.”

With the media sidelining itself, it remains that Hawley – something of a magnet for whistleblowers – has beaten massive news organizations to many of the scoops surrounding the assassination attempt.

The latest? That most of the agents guarding Trump that day were from Homeland Security, not Secret Service – and that, unbelievably, their training for such a perilous assignment was paltry and off the internet.

“A two-hour, online webinar. And I’m told that half the time, the sounds to the webinar didn’t even work,” Hawley has said.

Now up to the whistleblowers to solve this?

Hawley says whistleblowers such as those who’ve come forward so far will be critical in getting to the bottom of what happened – to answering the maddening questions tormenting Melania Trump.

“We always protect their identity. Always,” Hawley says. “And I just want to say, to any whistleblower out there, potential whistleblower, who may listen to this: Please come forward if you have information, and we will protect you. 

“We have done this with, now, numerous Secret Service whistleblowers, FBI whistleblowers, Homeland Security whistleblowers. And we have a very careful process that is fully protected by law. We can keep all of the information in terms of their identity confidential as the law provides for, make sure they’re not retaliated against and make sure their identity is not revealed unless they want to be revealed. 

“But I would just say that, having now worked with many, many whistleblowers, been privileged to do so, we can guarantee their security. And their information is vital. Vital.”

Even as he pursues answers himself, Hawley says he hopes House Speaker Mike Johnson’s bipartisan task force looking into the security failures at the shooting will dig hard.

“You know, I think that the more people who are looking at this, the better. I hope that they will press hard and get answers. I just have to tell you, following our committee hearing in the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, I think there are more questions than ever – and we wouldn’t know anything were it not for whistleblowers, let’s just be honest. 

“It’s whistleblowers who’ve come forward to me who have said they offered drones to the Secret Service and the Secret Service denied them. That there were supposed to be Secret Service or law enforcement on that roof where the shooter was, and there was no one there. There was supposed to be law enforcement patrolling the perimeter of that building, and there was no one there. 

“All of these revelations have come because of these whistleblowers. And I just tell you, I hope that more whistleblowers will come forward.  

“And I hope that we will continue to press Secret Service and FBI, because right now we know almost nothing from them. And here’s the worst part of it – there’s been no accountability. Nobody’s been fired. Nobody has been removed from duty. This is totally, totally unacceptable.”

What’s next? The continued search not just for information, but accountability, Hawley says.

“We need to see some accountability at the top. Frankly, the current director of the Secret Service, Mr. Rowe – we now know from whistleblowers that he has been instrumental in recent years in cutting back the manpower of the Secret Service, the manpower that gets deployed to rallies like the one in Butler. That’s just not acceptable.  

“So, he needs to answer some tough questions here and show that he’s committed to serious reforms, or he needs to go. 

“And I can tell you, I’m not gonna vote for any increase in budget for the Secret Service when they are currently using the money they have to take agents out of the field to multiply leadership positions and to not be accountable. That’s not acceptable. 

“So, there are a lot of questions here that need to be answered. We need to get all of the facts. We need to find out why there were such catastrophic failures. And people at the top need to be held accountable.”