Trump Questions Secret Service on How Attacker Reached Roof
Former President Trump and his 2024 running mate J.D. Vance gave their first joint interview to Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday. The interview came after the deadly attack on Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last week.
Donald Trump told “Jesse Watters Primetime” that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle met with him after the assassination attempt.
“It went really well. I thought she was very gracious. But, you know, somebody should have checked to make sure there was nobody on the roof,” he said.
Thomas Matthew Crooks fired multiple shots at the former president from a rooftop about 130 yards away.
Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks fired multiple shots at the former president from the rooftop of a building. Investigators are trying to figure out how the 20-year-old local resident got a clear view of Trump. Eyewitness Michael DiFriscia captured video of Crooks lying on top of the American Glass Research Building, aiming an AR-style rifle at him.
“I saw a little kid running through the crowd, and somebody said that guy had a gun,” DiFriscia told “The Ingraham Angle” last week.
“The problem was the police officers were too close to the building. They couldn’t see him. We kept trying to tell them, ‘He’s right there, he’s right there,’ but they couldn’t see him.”
Other witnesses said they tried to alert police to the shooter before the shots were fired. The bullet grazed Trump’s ear, killing former Pennsylvania Fire Chief Corey Comperatore and wounding David Deutch and James Copenhaven.
Trump told Waters he was surprised at how close Crooks got.
“He said even a bad shot usually hits the target. So, there must have been somebody up there. The roof was almost flat, not sloped like a barn roof. Cheatle said the roof was a little bit pitched up, but in reality, it was almost a flat roof,” he said.
Cheatle told ABC News last week that the building the alleged shooter was in had a sloping roof “the highest point.” He explained, “So, you know, that’s a security concern because we wouldn’t want to put somebody on a sloping roof.”
Trump said he thought Cheatle was “misinformed” when he cited the slope of the roof as a reason for there not being any Secret Service agents on top of the building.
The 2024 Republican candidate asked why he was not advised to step away from the stage for 5-20 minutes before speaking if there were concerns about a potential threat.
“Why couldn’t I just step away from the stage for five minutes while they were working on the stage? How come the roof I was speaking on was in plain sight but she wasn’t? How come nobody noticed this?” he asked.
Cheatle testified Monday about security lapses on Capitol Hill that nearly led to the assassination of a former president.
Read Also: Why Isn’t Obama Endorsing Kamala Harris Yet?
He acknowledged that the attack on Trump was the Secret Service’s biggest failure in decades.
Two top members of the House Oversight Committee, Representatives James Comer (R-KY) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), have called on Cheatle to resign. They sent her a letter after her testimony, criticizing her for not answering basic questions about a major operational failure. They also said she failed to reassure the American people that the Secret Service was learning from its mistakes and fixing its ongoing issues.
Trump praised his Secret Service agents for their quick response during his rally. When shots were fired, the agents rushed to protect and cover him.
He told Waters that his ear was healing and getting better. “We’re only using small bandages now. It was a serious injury. It happened just a week ago today. When you think about it, a lot has happened since then,” he said.
“Who – who could have thought this was going to happen? But it did. And I got very lucky, or God, I think it was God really.”
Join YouTube channel:Â weekly wakeup
