Embattled Secret Service head Kimberly Cheatle has revealed the fateful reason why her agency failed to position an agent on top of the building that a gunman used to carry out an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
Cheatle, who is already facing calls to resign over what some lawmakers are calling a massive security failure, said Secret Service officials planning security for Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania considered the warehouse about 150 yards away from where Trump spoke to be a risky position for stationing an agent.
‘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 transpired instead was a security nightmare: Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to scale the building and secure his own position, while law enforcement struggled to locate him even amid pressing warnings from members of the Trump crowd. But there wasn’t sufficient time to act on the tips, she explalined.
‘The shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion,’ Cheatle said. ‘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.’
Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle has come forward with her first interview since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, blaming a sloped roof as the reason to try to secure the building from the inside
Cheatle told ABC News her first reaction to the shooting was ‘shock.’
She also said the Secret Service was aware of the security vulnerabilities presented by the building Crooks took a sniper’s position on to aim at Trump. However, a decision was made not to place any personnel on the roof.
She also continues to resist calls that she step down over the incident, even while taking responsibility for her agency.
‘The buck stops with me,’ she said.
‘It was unacceptable,’ she told ABC. ‘And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.’
Cheatle is already facing calls to step down amid what some are calling a ‘massive security failure’
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President Biden got asked by NBC Monday whether he has confidence in the Secret Service.
‘I feel safe with the Secret Service. But look … what we did see was the Secret Service who responded risked their lives responding. They were ready to give their lives for the president. The question is should they have anticipated what happened. Should they have done what they needed to do to prevent this from happening? That’s the question that’s an open question.’
He didn’t respond directly when NBC’s Lester Holt asked him if the agency suffered a ‘massive security failure.’