Former President Trump and his 2024 running mate J.D. Vance gave Fox News host Jesse Waters their first joint interview on Monday following an assassination attempt on the Republican nominee last week at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump tells ‘Jesse Waters Prime Time’ is in trouble Secret Service Director Kimberly Chettle Visited him days after the assassination attempt.
“It went very well. I thought she was very nice. But, you know, someone should have made sure there was no one on the roof,” he said.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is sworn in before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee during a campaign event at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, July 22, 2024, regarding former President Donald Trump The assassination of Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Rod Rumkey Jr.)
The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired several shots at the former president from the roof of a building about 130 yards away.
Investigators are piecing together how the 20-year-old local resident was able to clearly see Trump. Eyewitness Michael Difrischia filmed Crooks lying on top of the American Glass Research Building, looking down AR-style rifle.
“I saw a young child running through the crowd and someone spoke[n] up [and] Said the guy had a gun,” DiFrischia told “The Ingraham Angle” last week.
Who is Thomas Matthew Crooks? What we know about Trump’s assassination attempter
“The problem is the police were too close to the building. They couldn’t see him,” he added. “We try to tell them he’s there, he’s there, but they just can’t see him.”
Law enforcement officers stand over the body of would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks on Saturday, July 13, 2024. (Driller Todd)
Other witnesses said they tried to warn police before the gunman opened fire. Brushed Trump’s earskilling former Pennsylvania State Fire Chief Corey Comperatore and injuring David Dutch and James Copenhaven.
Trump told Waters he was surprised Crooks got so close.
“They say it’s really – a bad shot usually hits the target. So I mean, it has to be, someone has to be there. And it’s essentially a flat roof. I mean, I noticed her [Cheatle] Say, okay, this is a pitched roof, you can think of it like a barn, this thing just has a little bit of – a little bit of rise, a couple of degrees. It’s not – it’s essentially a flat roof,” he said.
Chatel told ABC News last week that the building where the alleged shooter was located “has a pitched roof at its highest point.” “So, you know, there’s a safety factor that we don’t want to consider Someone is on the sloping roof,” she says.
Two FBI investigators scanned the roof of AGR International, a building adjacent to Butler Marketplace, following the July 14 assassination attempt on the life of accused gunman Matthew Thomas Crew at a campaign rally. It was here that Matthew Thomas Crooks took a shot at former President Donald J. Trump. Trump suffered an ear injury and was escorted away by the Secret Service. One participant in the July 13 rally died and two others were seriously injured. (Jeff Swenson/Getty Images)
Trump said he thought Chatter was being given “false information” when she mentioned the slope of the roof as the reason why there were no Secret Service agents on top of the building.
The 2024 Republican nominee questioned why he wasn’t told to step away from the podium for five to 20 minutes before taking the stage to begin his speech if he was concerned about potential threats.
An officer used a rangefinder to report a man at a Trump rally 30 minutes before assassination attempt: Sources
“You have to answer why can’t I leave the stage for five minutes while they’re working? Why can’t I, you know, how it happened The roof is clearly visible from where I’m speaking…why can’t anyone see that?
Former President Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. (Trump Campaign Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Chatel appeared on Capitol Hill on Monday to respond to security lapses that nearly led to the former president’s assassination.
She admits attempt on Trump’s life was Worst operational failure Worked in the Secret Service for decades.
Two ranking members of the House Oversight Committee, Reps. James Comer, R-Ky., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., called on Chattel resign in a letter After her testimony, she said she failed “to provide answers to basic questions about this egregious operational failure or to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and is beginning to correct its systemic errors and failures.” .
On July 22, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, the United States, U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle attended the House Oversight Committee’s hearing on the security breach that led to the assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. (Reuters/Kevin Mohart)
Trump praised the actions of Secret Service agents who rushed to cover him after shots were fired at the rally.
He told Waters that his ear was healing and getting better. “We’re working on a little bandage. But it’s a nasty bandage. And very nasty, that’s all. That was exactly a week ago from today. And, you know, when you think about it , it’s — this covers a lot of ground,” he said.
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“Who – who would have thought this would happen? But it did. I was lucky, or God, I think actually God.”
