Eric Trump has criticized Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle over the failed assassination attempt on his father.
Cheatle said there were no officers stationed on the roof where gunman Thomas Michael Crooks opened fire because it was tilted and there was a “safety factor that would be taken into account.”
He is now facing calls to resign over the massive security breach that allowed criminals to breach a building just 140 metres from where the former president was speaking to thousands of fans.
A bullet went through Trump’s ear and retired fire chief Corey Comperatore was killed in the crowd when Crooks went on a rampage in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
‘My father almost lost his mind over that incompetence,’ Eric Trump said. Fox News at the Republican convention on Tuesday night.
“My 4-year-old daughter could have climbed up onto that roof. It’s outrageous, it’s an act of God that she survived.”
Eric Trump has criticized Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle over the failed assassination attempt on his father
Eric previously revealed he was watching his father’s demonstration with his children when the horror happened at 6:11pm on Saturday night.
He then called the former president while he was in the hospital under observation.
The Secret Service has since come under intense scrutiny, with Cheatle suggesting on Tuesday that there was no presence on the roof, which had a clear line of sight to Trump, due to security concerns.
Cheatle acknowledged that officials planning security for Trump’s rally considered the warehouse 147 yards from where Trump spoke to be a risky position to station an agent.
Chilling new details have revealed that a local police sniper team was inside the building when 20-year-old Crooks opened fire, shooting Trump in the ear and killing a member of the crowd attending the rally.
Eric Trump hugs his father in the private box at the Republican convention, three days after the failed assassination attempt
Secret Service agent Kimberly Cheatle has appeared in her first interview since the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, blaming a sloping roof as the reason for trying to secure the building from the inside.
Cheatle is facing calls to resign over the massive security breach that allowed criminals to storm a building just 140 yards from where the former president was speaking to thousands of fans.
Crooks managed to evade police and Secret Service three times, even though he had been deemed “suspicious” and could have been on the roof for up to 30 minutes before pulling the trigger.
Witnesses also pleaded with law enforcement to act when they saw him climbing onto the roof with his AR-style rifle, but the lack of security meant he was able to carry out his attempt to take the life of the 45th president.
The blunders that led to Trump being nearly assassinated prompted calls for Cheatle to resign, but she has refused and has now given a baffling explanation for why there was no presence on the roof who had a clear line of sight to Trump.
Former FBI special agent Kenneth Gray told DailyMail.com on Monday that the Secret Service “really made a mistake” at Saturday’s rally and that efforts to hire more women in field positions may have played a role.
The crowd roars as Trump raises his fist alongside his son Eric and running mate JD Vance.
Republican officials meeting in Milwaukee have been calling for tighter scrutiny of the agency, even as the feds are implementing tighter security measures around Trump and other protégés.
“Someone, somewhere, has a lot of serious questions to answer,” House Judiciary and Gun Committee member Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota told DailyMail.com.
Also surprising was Cheatle’s decision to avoid questions so far, as he was not present at the initial press conference led by the FBI.
The investigation launched by President Joe Biden after the incident is being overseen by the Justice Department, not Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.
Police snipers return fire after shots were fired as Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump was speaking at a campaign event.
“That says a lot,” former House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz told DailyMail.com.
President Biden was asked by NBC on Monday if he has confidence in the Secret Service.
“I feel safe with the Secret Service. But look… what we saw was that the Secret Service that responded risked their lives. They were willing to give their lives for the president. The question is, should they have foreseen what happened? Should they have done what they needed to do to prevent this from happening? That’s the open question.”
He did not directly respond when NBC’s Lester Holt asked if the agency suffered a “massive security breach.”