Trump Rally Shooting Survivors Blame Secret Service for Butler Assassination: ‘100% Negligence’

The two men seriously injured in the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump accused the Secret Service of “negligence” on Monday in their first public comments since the rally shooting.

James Copenhaver, 74, and David Dutch, 57, suffered serious injuries after both were shot twice at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, with one bullet also grazing the former president’s ear.

Firefighter Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed while protecting his family from the sniper’s shots.

“I believe that the Secret Service was 100% negligent, probably everyone involved in setting up that security, right down to the interdepartmental communications,” Dutch told NBC News. “The negligence was enormous. It was terrible.”

Asked whether the Secret Service failed to protect the 78-year-old Trump and rally attendees at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds, Dutch replied: “Great.”

“The entire security setup was poor,” he added.

Copenhaver agreed with Dutch’s assessment.

“I’m sure there was negligence,” he said. “This wouldn’t have happened if it had been safe.”

Dutch and Copenhaver’s lawyers plan to file a lawsuit after completing an investigation into the parties possibly responsible for the tragedy.

A Senate investigation into the shooting concluded last month that would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks’ attempt to kill Trump was “foreseeable” and “avoidable” and the result of “failures in planning, communication, security and resource allocation” on the part of Trump of the Senate was secret service.

Crooks, 20, had been at the rally site for about 70 minutes on the morning of the attack. He managed to fly a drone over the fairgrounds before Trump’s arrival, and at least eight Secret Service agents were alerted to a “suspicious” person with a rangefinder — later identified as Crooks — nearly half an hour before the shooting.

Dutch told NBC News that he was “angry” about security lapses during the shooting and that the sniper “tried to shoot the president and fired into a defenseless crowd.”

“I was just angry that the whole situation even happened,” Dutch said. “It should never have happened.”

Dutch, who was shot in the liver by Crooks, said the bullet’s impact felt “like a sledgehammer hit straight to the chest.”

He noted that he could see metal and pieces of the stands “flying around” until the shooting stopped.

“It’s a battle every day,” Dutch said of the ongoing health issues he has as a result of the shooting. This includes not being able to drive or lift more than 10 pounds.

Copenhaver, who was shot in the triceps and stomach, said he knew something was wrong when he saw a piece of his sleeve tear away from his shirt.

“I turned to my friend and said, ‘I think I’ve been shot,’ and that’s when I got the second shot and then fell to the ground,” he said.

Copenhaver said he has lost 30 pounds, still experiences occasional pain in his abdomen and has had to walk with a cane since the shooting.

Crooks was shot and killed by a Secret Service agent shortly after he opened fire.