In combined work from five journalists, CNN reported late Tuesday that the woeful security effort at Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania rally on Saturday actually had more resources than it might have had a month ago after U.S. intelligence from a human source revealed a plot by the Iranian government to assassinate Trump.
CNN cited multiple people who had been briefed on the matter.
There has been some level of Iranian threat against Trump since he authorized the U.S. drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, near the Baghdad airport in January of 2020.
The Secret Service says it responded to the threat with “surged resources and assets” for Trump’s protection, CNN reported.
In light of Trump's miracle head turn, and now news of an Iranian plot, CNN pursued and got a one-on-one interview with Kim Cheatle, the Secret Service director.
Whitney Wild, CNN's law enforcement correspondent, asked Cheatle directly if every aspect of security “top to bottom, the advance, and the operation” was increased for Donald Trump.
“What we increased was what we felt was appropriate for the former president and on that particular event for that day," Cheatle replied. "We have been increasing the assets, the resources and the staffing that we had been providing to the former president since he was a presidential candidate and then the presumptive nominee."
“That sounds like a no,” Wild, on the payroll of Trump-hating CNN, bluntly responded.
Citing law enforcement sources, CNN reported Tuesday that Trump's shooter, Thomas Crooks, was found with a laser rangefinder when he went through a screening line hours before Trump's rally.
After arousing suspicion, Crooks was also being observed on the fairgrounds property by agents - and was photographed by a local police sniper - about an hour before he pulled the trigger. That same officer spotted Crooks a second time, took a photo, then called the command center, according to The New York Post.
About a football field away
Even with additional law enforcement resources, the Secret Service failed to secure the top of a building roughly 130-150 yards away from where Trump was speaking, according to reported estimates.
“It’s mind-blowing," John Cardillo, a former officer with the NYPD, said on American Family Radio. "It’s baffling to any of us who have worked around this. Not securing the rooftop immediately would be akin to a surgeon not washing his hands before walking into the operating room. It’s just not done."
“I’ve done thousands of counter-sniper operations with our teams in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. The amount of negligence, the amount of mistakes that was made here, I have a very difficult time not leaning myself toward this was intentional as opposed to fecklessness,” Rep. Cory Mills (R-Florida) said on CNN Tuesday.
While the congressman seemed to be flirting with the idea of an inside job, Cardillo told show host Jenna Ellis he does not believe the Trump security fiasco was a planned inside job.
“Do I think it was a proactive deep state operation? No, but I will say the score is 100% right in terms of securing the rooftop being that basic. It’s the first thing you do,” he said.
If there is no JFK-like conspiracy behind Trump's shooting, that leaves the public to conclude the elite U.S. Secret Service was outwitted by a 20-year-old bomb maker who cased the scene and was being watched minutes before he pulled the trigger.
Cheatle has refused to step down and has received no public criticism from either President Joe Biden or Department of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas.
A dangerous sloped roof
She told ABC News the unmanned building – at least by Secret Service personnel – could have posed a danger to her agents.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. There’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” Cheatle said. “The decision was made to secure the building from the inside.”
Cardillo bristled at the response and said Cheatle deserved to be fired for just that remark alone.
"This is like saying Biden’s abysmal debate failure was due to cough medicine," he said. "It’s wild that these people are making these kinds of excuses. That one, the woman flat out lied to cover her butt.”
In an AFN interview about the assassination attempt, security expert Greg Shaffer similarly said Cheatle's explanation was absurd.
"She's not telling the truth," Shaffer, an FBI veteran, says. "That rooftop was so minimally sloped that would present a threat or danger to no one."
An Iranian threat to Trump, which had already existed, should not become a scapegoat for the Secret Service, Cardillo said.
“(Cheatle) knew exactly what to do, exactly what not to do, but focused so much on diversity and wokeness and all this that her, her leadership or lack thereof caused this. The IRGC, they’re the only modern-day equivalent to Hitler’s SS, and they’re as brutal, evil and wide-reaching in every day,” Cardillo said.
Cardillo and Mills both say it’s time for a congressional investigation.
Don’t let Mayorkas near investigation
Mills said the investigation needs to come “from within Congress, not just the FBI, not just others.”
Anything less would involve Mayorkas whose recent visits to Capitol Hill involving the open southern border have left Republicans uninspired.
“I absolutely don't trust any agency under Alejandro Mayorkas," Cardillo said. "We've seen him sit down and lie to Congress, lie to the American people about the border being secure, lie about his deployment of border patrol."
