Donald Trump turned his head slightly to look at the big screen as shots rang out at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening — and experts say the split-second movement may have saved his life.
Trump, 78, turned to the right while addressing a crowd at the Butler Farm Show because he “wanted to get on the Jumbotron and make a statement.” Senior adviser Dan Scavino Jr. said Sunday..
This small adjustment came at the moment when Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired a shot at the former president’s head, with the bullet grazing the Republican front-runner’s ear rather than penetrating his skull. Aaron Cohen, an Israeli special operations veteran, told Fox News..
“Snipers are typically trained to target the cerebral cortex of the cerebellum, which is at the top of the brain stem,” Cohen explained to host Trace Gallagher.
“It cripples you, it keeps your hands still. … It’s about the distance of the shot. 130 yards. It’s a putt. Anybody can put two, two, three, optics on the target from that distance and hit it. It’s not a difficult shot,” he said.
Cohen said that if Trump had been in his right mind when Crooks opened fire, “it would have been very different.”
“The fact that he happened to be facing us when the bullet struck saved his life,” the special operations expert said.
But while Trump’s last-minute change of course may have saved his life, former federal investigators say frantic efforts to remove him from the rally stage after shots rang out may have put the real estate mogul in even greater danger.
“I’ve worked with the Secret Service before, and watching this unfold, I couldn’t believe how long it took for them to get him off the stage and into the car, and then how long it took for the car to leave the location,” former FBI special agent Jonathan Gilliam told “Fox & Friends First” on Sunday.
“From a conservation standpoint, it was a lifelong issue,” he said.
“A lot of people on the news didn’t want to criticize the Secret Service, but watching this again, I’m surprised at how things played out, because the whole effort to defend Trump and shut him down seemed to be cooked up on the spot. This is not how this elite service should be prepared for situations and tactics like this,” Gilliam said.
Former FBI Director Chris Swecker echoed Gilliam’s sentiments, saying the assassination attempt on Trump was “nearly fatal.”
“If there had been a second assailant, they would have had ample opportunity to shoot him again, so this is a violation of all the rules of the Secret Service and just executive protection in general,” he explained.
Security at the rally “was a breakdown from start to finish,” Swecker said.
“The Secret Service’s primary job is to prevent this kind of behavior and to respond as quickly as possible and get him out of the danger zone. Neither of those things happened here, so I don’t want to make any harsh judgments, but it was definitely a security lapse,” he said.
Former Secret Service agent Jeff James said outdoor events pose unique security challenges that the Secret Service should have handled differently.
“They are [Trump]They caught him [exited the stage]”He was going to wait for the shoes, which would be great, but I said, ‘No, I’m going now,'” he told the network.
“If I have a criticism, it’s this. I would have liked to see him get off the stage sooner and get into the armoured car. If you get in an armoured car and you’re locked down, you’re a lot safer and you can move around pretty quickly if you need to.”
Trump was examined at Butler Memorial Hospital following the shooting, after arriving in New Jersey early Sunday morning.
The Republican presidential nominee is undeterred by Saturday night’s incident and plans to attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week as scheduled, his campaign said.
