In excerpts from a Fox News interview to be aired Monday, former President Trump lamented security failings at his recent rallies, which were marked by assassination attempts.
“How did someone get on that roof and why wasn’t it reported?” the former president said. Said “It’s because people saw him on the roof,” he said in an interview with “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
The former president was the victim of an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last weekend, and was shot in the ear that he has been wearing in recent days.
The US Secret Service has faced intense scrutiny following the shooting, with many questioning how a gunman was able to get onto the rooftop in clear view of President Trump.
“Trump supporters were yelling. A woman in a red shirt was yelling, ‘There’s a man on the roof,’ and other people were yelling, ‘There’s a man with a gun on the roof.’ This was well before I got onstage. So you knew somebody was going to do something,” Trump said in the interview.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has also faced pressure and scrutiny from both parties in the wake of the shooting. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) called for her resignation on Wednesday, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also called on the same day for the appointment of new leadership for the Secret Service.
“The evidence that has emerged demonstrates unacceptable operational failures,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pennsylvania), the first Democrat to call for Director Cheatle to resign after the incident, said in a statement posted to the social platform X on Saturday. “Should Director Cheatle choose to remain in his position, I have zero confidence in the leadership of the United States Secret Service.”
Hill contacted the Secret Service.
