by Debra Heine
Embattled U.S. Secret Service Chief Kimberly Cheatle said Tuesday that the reason there were no agents stationed on top of the building the gunman used to carry out his assassination attempt on Donald Trump is because the building’s slightly sloped roof was deemed unsafe for agents to navigate.
In an interview with ABC News Tuesday, Cheatle explained why the building, only 150 yards away from where Trump spoke, was a no-go zone for law enforcement, Saturday.
“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 said. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”
The Getty Images in the photo above shows two FBI agents standing effortlessly on top of the building, Sunday.
Cheatle told ABC News that Secret Service was aware the placement of the building so close to the rally presented security vulnerabilities, but a decision was made not to place any personnel on the roof due to the safety concerns.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has invited the DEI-obsessed Secret Service director to appear on Capitol Hill for a hearing on the security failure on July 22.
As American Greatness reported yesterday, the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was identified as a person of interest almost a half and hour before the shooting started. But somehow, the agents inside the building didn’t know he was right above their heads.
“The shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion,” Cheatle acknowledged in her interview with ABC News. “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.”
“It was unacceptable,’ Cheatle told ABC. “And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”
She said “the buck stops with me,” but has continued to resist calls for her to step down.
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Debra Heine reports for American Greatness.
Photo “United States Secret Service Members” by United States Secret Service.
