Former President Trump and 2024 presidential candidate J.D. Vance sat down for their first joint interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday since the attempted assassination of the Republican candidate at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania last week.
Trump said he’s in for an uphill battle on “Jesse Watters Primetime.” Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle I came to see him a few days after the assassination attempt.
“It went very well. I thought she was a very nice person. But somebody should have made sure there was no one on that roof,” he said.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is sworn in before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday, July 22, 2024, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., regarding the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a campaign event in Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.)
The gunman, suspected to be Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired several shots at the former president from the roof of a building about 130 yards away.
Investigators are trying to determine how the 20-year-old local resident was able to get a clear view of Trump. Witness Michael DiFriscia said he saw Crooks lying on the roof of the American Glass Research building, AR-Style Rifles.
“I saw a young kid running through the crowd and someone was talking to him.[n] Up [and] “The guy had a gun,” DiFriscia told “The Ingram Angle” last week.
Who Was Thomas Matthew Crookes? What We Know About the Trump Assassin
“The problem was the officers were too close to the building, they couldn’t see the guy,” he added. “We tried to tell them he was right there, right there, but they couldn’t see him.”
Police officers stand near the body of Thomas Crooks, the man who attempted to assassinate President Trump, on Saturday, July 13, 2024. (Todd the Driller)
Other witnesses said the gunman tried to alert officers to the gunman’s presence before opening fire. It grazed Trump’s ear.former Pennsylvania State Fire Chief Corey Comperatore was killed, and David Duch and James Copenhaven were injured.
Trump told Watters he was surprised Crooks got so close.
“They said it was really, really, that even a bad shot would hit the target, so somebody has to be there. And it’s basically a flat roof. So I guess she [Cheatle] “It’s a pitched roof, kind of like a barn, it slopes up just a little bit. It’s not essentially a flat roof,” he said.
Cheatle told ABC News last week that the building the suspect was in had “the highest point and the highest sloped roof,” so “given the safety factors, Person on a sloping roof,” she said.
Two FBI agents search the rooftop of AGR International, adjacent to the Butler Fairgrounds, where suspect Matthew Thomas Crooks fired a shot at former President Donald J. Trump in the aftermath of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 14, 2024. Trump sustained an ear injury and was taken into custody by Secret Service personnel. One attendee was killed and two seriously injured at the July 13 rally. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
Trump said he believed he was given “incorrect information” by Cheatle, who cited the slope of the roof as the reason Secret Service agents were not on top of the building.
The 2024 Republican presidential candidate questioned why, if there were concerns about a potential threat, he wasn’t asked to leave the stage for five to 20 minutes before taking to the stage to begin his speech.
Cops reported man with rangefinder at Trump rally 30 minutes before assassination attempt: Sources
“We need to answer why we couldn’t leave the stage for five minutes while they were doing their job. How does the situation arise? The roof was clearly visible from where I was speaking… why didn’t anyone see it?” he asked.
Former President Trump survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. (Trump Campaign/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Cheatle appeared on Capitol Hill on Monday to demand an explanation for the security failings that nearly led to the former president’s assassination.
She said there was an attempt on Trump’s life. Most significant operational failure This is the first time the Secret Service has appeared in decades.
The two ranking members of the House Oversight Committee, Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), called on Cheatle to resign by letter After her testimony, she said she was “failed to answer fundamental questions about that astonishing operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic failings and failures.”
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle attends a House Oversight Committee hearing on security failings that allowed the assassination attempt on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington, U.S., July 22, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Mohat)
President Trump praised the Secret Service, who rushed to his aid after shots rang out at the rally.
He told Watters that the ear was healing and was doing better. “I could barely bandage it, but it was awful. It was just awful. That was just a week ago today. If you think about it, it’s been pretty extensive,” he said.
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“Who would have thought something like this would happen? But it did. I’m very lucky. I think it’s God’s blessing.”
