Kimberly Cheatle, the embattled Secret Service director, has revealed the crucial and peculiar reason why her agency failed to place an agent on the roof where gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Donald Trump.
Cheatle, who is facing calls to resign as a result of the catastrophic security failure, stated that Secret Service personnel arranging security for Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, judged the warehouse 147 yards away from where Trump spoke to be a problematic location for stationing an agent.
According to chilling new information, a team of local police snipers was inside the building when Crooks, 20, opened fire, shot Trump in the ear, and killed a rallygoer.
Crooks evaded authorities and the Secret Service three times, despite being deemed suspicious and perhaps being on the roof for up to 30 minutes before pulling the trigger.
If the Secret Service knew Crooks was there, then why was Donald Trump allowed to be on the stage? What is wrong with these people?
Witnesses also asked cops to intervene when they saw him go onto the roof with his AR-style rifle, but a security breakdown allowed him to carry out his plan to assassinate the 45th president.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELThe mistakes that put Trump inches away from being murdered prompted calls for Cheatle to resign, but she has refused and has now given a perplexing explanation for why there wasn’t a presence on the roof with a clear line of sight to Trump.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she told ABC News in an interview Tuesday.
“And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”
What happened instead was a security nightmare: Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to scale the building and secure his own position, while law enforcement struggled to find him despite urgent warnings from members of the Trump crowd. But there wasn’t enough time to act on the advice, she explained.
“The shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion,” Cheatle continued. “Unfortunately, with the rapid succession of how things unfolded, by the time that individual was eventually located, they were on the rooftop and were able to fire off at the former president.”
She was referring to witnesses’ assertions that they informed law enforcement about the threat, but agents were unable to eliminate it in time. Officials have pointed to the first responder, who pulled himself up onto the roof only to lower himself back down when his own life was threatened.
A government sniper positioned behind Trump as he was speaking killed the would-be assassin, but only after he started fire.
The details that let Crooks almost kill President Trump seem less real as time goes on. I know that hindsight is 20/20, but the person who decided that an agent shouldn’t be on this roof because it was too dangerous needs to be fired. Because a crazy 20-year-old did what they were afraid to do, and Trump almost died because of it. It did kill a brave dad and former firefighter, which is the worst thing that could happen.
Assassination attempts like this don’t happen very often, so I think the Secret Service was too relaxed. They thought they could get away with not having anyone on that roof because they thought it was too “risky.”
