Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle claims her agency failed to station an agent on the rooftop from which gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump because it had “a sloped roof at its highest point.” She argues there was “a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” adding that “the decision was made to secure the building from inside”—which did not stop Crooks from climbing the building and opening fire on the former president.
Cheatle, under mounting pressure to resign over security lapses at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally, says the “shooter was identified as a potential threat” before the assassination attempt. This raises further questions as to how he was able to get off multiple shots at President Trump, striking his ear and killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore.
Despite security flagging him as suspicious, Crooks managed to evade detection multiple times and spent up to 30 minutes on the roof before his attack. Eyewitnesses were pleading with law enforcement to do something upon spotting Crooks on the roof with a rifle, but he was able to execute his attempt on Trump’s life unimpeded.
“The buck stops with me,” Cheatle has said, describing the incident as “unacceptable” and pledging to prevent such lapses in the future—instead of offering her resignation. She will testify before Congress in the coming days.
Meanwhile, former U.S. Army sniper Rep. Cory Mills, is arguing the lapses make no sense and may have been “intentional.”
“The amount of negligence, the amount of mistakes made here, I have a very difficult time not leaning myself towards this was intentional as opposed to fecklessness,” he told CNN.
JUST IN: CNN host loses it after former US Army sn*per Cory Mills suggests the July 13 assas*ination attempt on Trump *could have been* a setup.
Holy sh*t.
Mills explained how everything about the incident made no sense.
CNN anchor Kate Bolduan was visibly stunned and… pic.twitter.com/ss6G0opgKx
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 16, 2024
Jack Montgomery contributed to this report.
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