In her first interview following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday, the head of the Secret Service revealed that the shooter was identified as a “potential person of suspicion,” but that police were unable to locate him before he opened fire at the Pennsylvania rally.
[RELATED: U.S. Secret Service’s Failure, Sluggish Response to Trump Assassination Attempt Raise Concerns…]
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle made the revelation in an interview with ABC News on Monday, after reports came out earlier that day that local law enforcement had spotted the would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks “in or just-outside” the Butler, Pennsylvania rally venue before Trump took the stage.
Cheatle told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas that the assassination attempt, which left one rallygoer dead and two others critically injured, was “unacceptable,” and that “it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”
“It was obviously a situation that as a Secret Service agent, no one ever wants to occur in their career,” Cheatle said.
Cheatle said that as head of the Secret Service, the responsibility for the security failure at the rally ultimately lies herself, and that she will be investigating what went wrong to make sure nothing like it can ever happen again.
“The buck stops with me,” she said. “I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary.”
However, Cheatle told the network that she would not resign from her role.
[RELATED: Trump Calls Assassination Attempt ‘surreal’: ‘I’m supposed to be dead’…]
Responding to reports that the gunman was seen and identified as a suspicious person before he began shooting, Cheatle explained that there was “a very short period of time” between when Crooks was identified and when he opened fire.
“I’m being told that the shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion. Units started responding to seek that individual out,” Cheatle told 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.”
“I don’t have all the details yet, but it was a very short period of time,” she said. “Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult.”
According to Cheatle, Secret Service was responsible for security within the inner perimeter of the rally venue, but utilized local law enforcement for security in the outer perimeter, which includes the building on which the shooter was perched and shot at the former president.
“In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter,” Cheatle said. “And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”
Cheatle also dismissed rumors that the former president’s security detail had asked for more resources before the Saturday rally, and urged the public to have confidence in the Secret Service’s ability to protect the president and former president.
“Secret Service is not political,” she said. “Security is not political. People’s safety is not political. And that’s what we’re focused on as an agency.”
Cheatle is expected to testify before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee on Monday, July 22.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="29362 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=29362">1 Comment
Is Kimmy so PC that she cannot bear to identify the sex of the shooter for fear of hurting his pronoun sensitivity? ” “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.”