In the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) said the U.S. Secret Service is more interested in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) than it is in its mission. The comments were made during an interview with Breitbart News Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle at the Republican National Convention on Thursday.
Marshall agreed with the widespread belief that God was protecting Trump that day.
“I spoke to President Trump on Monday morning and it was the most thoughtful talk I’ve ever heard. I’m a doctor and I’ve seen a lot of people have these near-death experiences, especially when they’re supposed to be dying. It’s like being in a terrible car accident and wondering how the hell this person survived,” he said.
“President Trump should have been assassinated, but God saved him,” he continued, marveling at Trump’s turn around at that exact moment.
“I don’t know how he managed to put a bullet in his ear and remove his head. I really don’t know, but I do know that moving his head saved his life. So I think this divine providence that we all feel every day. A lot of my friends are fighting for President Trump and really, all of our national leaders,” he said.
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Marshall spoke about the investigation into the assassination attempt and how members of Congress spotted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the convention and tried to follow her.
“So you [out that] “This was a massive failure,” he said, reminding the audience that the assassination attempt on Trump also claimed the life of another man who was protecting Trump’s family, Corey Comperatore.
“We have to admit that. The other two [were] “Serious injuries were sustained. This is a huge mistake. If Keystone Police had planned better this could have been prevented. I think it shows there is a total cultural problem with the Secret Service,” he said.
“The hour-long phone call revealed nothing. We found out they had broken into his house,” he said. [the attempted assassin’s] “He’s looking at pictures of President Trump on his phone. We know he’s visited the area, but we know very little about it. They confirmed, probably an hour before the assassination attempt, that this individual was aware of carrying a rangefinder and a backpack. I use a rangefinder. I hunt with a bow and arrow, so I use it to see, ‘how far away is the deer, how far away is the turkey,'” he said.
“Why did he have a rangefinder? That person should have been caught, taken to the downtown police station and asked, ‘Young man, what are you doing here with a rangefinder?’ That would have put him right in the nuts. So I think there was a major cover-up,” he said.
“You know, half of the Secret Service employees quit last year, which means half the department has been completely replaced,” he continued. “They’re prioritizing DEI over the mission, and I think that’s exactly what a major investigation is going to uncover.”
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Marshall explained that he thought the Secret Service was “surprised” that the attempted assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, “doesn’t fit the typical psychological profile that they find.”
“He didn’t have a mantra or a manifesto that he wasn’t pro-Iran, but I think he was a very simple, young, confused, 20-year-old guy who was emotionally distraught and I don’t know exactly why, but certainly he wanted to assassinate a celebrity and certainly President Trump presented him with that option in his hometown,” he said.
“But they seem to be refusing to say that there is a motive or that they have identified evidence of a motive or anything like that. They haven’t been very forthcoming with us in the media, they haven’t been holding many press conferences,” Boyle said.
“I remember the first press conference that night. The Secret Service wasn’t even there, right? It was a pretty remarkable event,” he said. “Even CNN was calling them out for it.”
“Ultimately, this is why Americans don’t trust the federal government,” the senator said. “And by the way, a Department of Homeland Security study found that [Department of Homeland Security] “So the Secret Service is now part of the Department of Homeland Security. I think moving them to Homeland Security was probably the first mistake, but half the people at Homeland Security don’t trust or respect their senior bosses,” he said.
“I will say that the rank-and-file Secret Service officers I’ve met are great people. They’re doing their jobs. What’s wrong is the plan. They executed the plan that they were told to execute, but there’s a cultural problem as to how they could have missed something so obvious,” he added.
