Secret Service boss blames ‘sloped roof’ for not putting sniper team on building used by would-be Trump assassin
Embattled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle says she has no plans to resign, even after the stunning revelation that the agency decided not to guard the roof from which Thomas Crooks opened fire on former President Donald Trump because it was too slanted.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she told ABC News in a startling admission.
“And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside,” she told the outlet.
Cheatle admitted the agency knew the building rooftop was a security vulnerability but still opted not to position agents there, leaving it wide open for Crooks to take up an ideal sniper perch with an unobstructed view of Trump on stage.
From the roof, Crooks had a clear line of sight to the GOP nominee with his AR-style semiautomatic rifle, about 130 yards away.
Tactical operations experts were outraged by Cheatle’s explanation that the building’s slope was an insurmountable obstacle to properly securing the area.
James Gagliano, a retired FBI supervisory special agent and Army veteran, said he didn’t understand her reasoning.
“You just have to work with the terrain you’re presented with,” Gagliano said.
Popular right-wing talk show host Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and NYPD cop, was indignant about Cheatle’s contradictory reasoning.
“The Secret Service director said, ‘don’t worry, we didn’t put someone on the roof because it could’ve created a dangerous situation.’ Like what? Someone getting shot in the head?” he said in an episode of “The Dan Bongino Show” podcast.
Washington GOP congressional candidate Joe Kent, a former Army Special Forces officer, wrote on X that even if the slope rendered counter-sniper coverage difficult, it still doesn’t explain the catastrophic security breach.
“You can’t get on the roof, but you identified the building/roof as a threat, so what’s the excuse for not securing the perimeter & all access points to the building/roof?”
Cheatle has faced steadily increasing pressure to step down as the depths of the agency’s disastrous handling of Trump’s attempted assassination have come to light.
She told ABC “the buck stops with me” as she addressed the mounting criticism — but refused to resign from her post.
“It was unacceptable,” Cheatle told ABC News Monday of her agency’s response to Saturday’s Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pa. “And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”
Twenty-year-old Crooks fired multiple shots with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle from the rooftop, wounding Trump and two others and killing a former firefighter.
“It was obviously a situation that as a Secret Service agent, no one ever wants to occur in their career,” she told the outlet.
“The buck stops with me. I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary.”
In a statement Monday, which did not acknowledge the agency’s failings in any way, the Secret Service chief touted “changes” would be coming to Trump’s security apparatus for the duration of the campaign.
But the lukewarm missive did little to quiet the doubters, who have lambasted Cheatle for prioritizing woke “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” initiatives — like pledging to make the Secret Service 30% women by 2030 — over providing robust and effective security.
Here’s the latest on the assassination attempt against Donald Trump:
Would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks visited gun range dozens of times — including Christmas — for ‘intense preparation’- Newly surfaced texts show Trump rally gunman was on authorities’ radar more than 90 minutes before shooting: report
- FBI to conduct victim interview with Donald Trump after assassination attempt
- Ex-Trump doc says FBI’s Wray is ‘wrong’ to doubt ex-prez was struck by bullet: ‘Absolutely no evidence’
- Trump defends female Secret Service agent who was criticized after assassination attempt: ‘So brave’
On the day of the shooting, Trump’s security detail included three women, who former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told The Post appeared totally ill equipped when Crooks opened fire.
“The women I saw up there with the president — they looked like they were running in circles. One didn’t know how to holster, the other one didn’t seem to know what to do, and another one seemed not to be able to find her holster,” he said.
“DEI is one thing, competence and effectiveness is another, and I saw DEI out there.”
Interestingly, Trump’s Secret Service detail during the first night of the Republican National Convention underway in Milwaukee featured only male agents — all of whom were noticeably closer in size to Trump’s 6-foot-3 frame.
Trump’s security was upgraded by the Secret Service to the full presidential package — the same level that President Biden gets, law enforcement sources told The Post on Monday.
Additional reporting by Caitlin McCormack
