One must wonder what rock Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle crawled out from—who selected someone lacking basic common sense in securing an event, let alone be responsible for one of the most important protectees in the country?
After 9/11, we formed the Joint Terrorist Task Force to guarantee and maximize rapid, effective interagency communication and operational response to threats. The Secret Service operates similarly when protecting officials traveling, meeting, and publicly speaking nationwide. At least, it once did.
Thirty minutes before the shooting, two police officers reported a suspicious person on the glass shop roof, noting he was using a range finder. A mere 86 seconds passed between citizens standing around the glass shop and roaming police officers reporting that many were on the roof! More civilians knew what was happening than the official security detail. This glaring lapse in communication, situational awareness, and unresponsiveness is unacceptable.
This epoch failure resulted in absolute catastrophe for a patriot who was forced to use his own body to shield and save his family from the bullets intended for Trump. Corey Comperatore’s blood is directly on the hands of Director Kimberly Cheatle, and she must be held accountable. Two others in attendance, 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver were also shot but are now in stable condition.
The Secret Service boss says the “buck stops with me” and then proceeds to pass the buck, throwing the local police under the bus. Embattled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle says she has no plans to resign, even after the stunning revelation that the agency decided not to guard the roof from which Thomas Crooks opened fire on former President Donald Trump because it was too slanted.
“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 a startling admission and attempting to deceive Americans.
What?! The two snipers poised on barns behind President Trump were stationed on roofs with far greater slopes without trouble compared to the glass shop slope where the assassin was perched unabated with a ladder against the back side of the building that should have alerted roaming patrols responsible for securing the buildings.
“And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building from inside,” she told the outlet. Cheatle admitted the agency knew the building rooftop was a security vulnerability but still opted not to position agents there, leaving it wide open for Crooks to take up an ideal sniper perch with an unobstructed view of Trump on stage. Cheatle, at best, is not up to the task!
Crooks had a clear line of sight from the roof to Trump, about 130 yards away. Any basic pre-reconnaissance from the most inexperienced individuals would have identified the glass shop roof as a top security concern and advantage point for securing the Trump rally.
Cheatle has faced steadily increasing pressure to step down as the depths of the agency’s disastrous handling of Trump’s attempted assassination have come to light. She told ABC “The buck stops with me” as she addressed the mounting criticism—but refused to resign from her post.
“It was unacceptable,” Cheatle told ABC News Monday of her agency’s response to Saturday’s Trump campaign rally in Butler, PA. “And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”
Well, “shouldn’t” isn’t good enough!
