Obama administration Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said Friday he has no “good answer” for why the shooter who almost killed former President Trump was able to access such an obvious vantage point before firing on the rally.
Johnson appeared on MSNBC to discuss the alleged security failures that led to a bullet coming within centimeters of mortally wounding Trump during his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania over the weekend.
“I suspect that one of the conclusions that will be reached is that there was a massive failure of prompt, timely communication,” Johnson said about investigations into the U.S. Secret Service’s handling of rally security.
Trump survived with an ear wound after 20-year-old suspect Thomas Crooks fired an AR-style rifle from a rooftop about 150 yards away, but one rally attendee was killed, and two others were seriously injured.
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According to new reports, the suspect clambered up an air conditioning unit to get to his roof perch before the shooting. Critics have questioned how Crooks was able to position himself so close to Trump despite the presence of local police and Secret Service agents. These questions have been compounded by various video and eyewitness accounts alleging that rallygoers pointed out the location of the shooter to law enforcement minutes before he fired.
Additionally, these apparent security breaches occurred after the Secret Service reportedly had beefed up security for the former president following threats from the Iranian government.
“So if this was increased security at the rally, how in the world did that shooter get up on the roof?” MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera asked.
“I don’t have a good answer for that,” Johnson said. “I think that that is one of many hard questions that need to be asked as part of an independent investigation, which [President Biden] called for.”
Johnson noted he was the “cabinet-level supervisor for the Secret Service for three years” and the high stakes of the Secret Service’s responsibility.
They have “to pitch a no-hitter every game, because if anybody gets on base the result is catastrophic,” he said.
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He noted that they’ve taken their job so seriously that no president or candidate had been hurt in 43 years, until now. Trump is the first president to be shot since Ronald Reagan in 1981, when he was seriously wounded by assailant John Hinckley, Jr.
“Having said all that, some hard questions do need to be asked. I’m guessing – educated guess – is that this campaign rally was organized very hastily, very quickly,” Johnson said.
“Anything or anyone with a direct line of fire on the protectee has to be secured,” he added, and then compared Saturday’s security breaches to those that occurred during former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
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