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WaPo: Secret Service allows Trump to continue outdoor rallies

REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID
                                Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump gestures with a bloodied face while he is assisted by U.S. Secret Service personnel after he was shot in the right ear during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Penn.

REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID

Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump gestures with a bloodied face while he is assisted by U.S. Secret Service personnel after he was shot in the right ear during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Penn.

WASHINGTON >> The U.S. Secret Service has approved a new plan for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to continue outdoor rallies in the wake of a July assassination attempt, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The agency will use bulletproof glass to shield Trump, as well as other technical security measures that have not normally been provided for presidential candidates, the Washington Post cited an unidentified Secret Service official as saying.

The former U.S. president survived an assassination attempt on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Security at that rally has been under scrutiny, with the shooting having raised serious concerns about how the suspect was able to access a nearby rooftop with a direct line of sight to where Trump was speaking.

The Secret Service has said it was “ashamed” of the security lapse and its chief stepped down in the assassination attempt’s aftermath.

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Washington Post report.

A rally attendee was killed in the shooting and two others were wounded. FBI officials have yet to identify a motive for the suspected shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who was shot dead by a Secret Service agent after opening fire.

Following the attack, the Secret Service recommended that Trump avoid large outdoor events. Trump subsequently said he would continue outdoor rallies and that the Secret Service had “agreed to substantially step up their operation” to protect him.

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