Former President Donald Trump spoke more about the assassination attempt and the security lapses that led to the shooting, telling Fox News’s Jesse Watters in an interview that aired Monday night that it’s “crazy” that the Secret Service didn’t have more manpower at his Pennsylvania campaign rally.
Trump survived the July 13 shooting after a bullet hit his right ear, while three other people were struck by more gunfire, including firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was killed. The 20-year-old shooter gained access to a roof fewer than 150 yards away from the rally stage and was spotted by Secret Service snipers 20 minutes before he opened fire, according to law enforcement officials.
“Somebody should’ve made sure there was nobody on that roof. That roof was a dead aim right onto the stage,” Trump told Watters. “And they said they didn’t have the manpower for it, which is crazy. A hundred thirty yards is like sinking a one-foot putt. It’s considered really close.”
“You have to answer: why couldn’t I have stayed off the stage for five minutes while they do their work? Why couldn’t, you know, how does a situation happen where a roof that’s plainly in sight from the location where I was speaking … why would somebody not have seen that?” the Republican presidential nominee added.
Trump blasted the “Biden/Harris administration” over the assassination attempt in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday morning, writing, “The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!”
Trump also told the Fox News host that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned on Tuesday morning, came to see him after the assassination attempt. The former president said his meeting with Cheatle “went very nicely,” adding that he believes she was given “false information” about the slope of the roof the shooter was perched on. Cheatle said last week that the roof’s slope presented a safety risk.
“I noticed that she [Cheatle] said, well, this is a slope[d] roof where you think of like a barn where you have, this thing had just a little — a little upswing in it, a few degrees. This was a not — it essentially was a flat roof,” Trump said.
Cheatle was questioned during a Congressional hearing on Monday and was urged by Republicans and Democrats to resign after she dodged answering numerous questions on how the would-be assassin was able to fire multiple shots at the former president.
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