Excerpts from an interview with GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance conducted with Fox News host Jesse Watters were released Saturday night, and Trump revealed some disturbing information: he was not warned that there was a risk despite the fact security forces were aware that his eventual, wannabe assassin was on the scene and presented a threat.
Why did they let the former president out onto the stage when there was an identified danger present? This is the question that will haunt the Secret Service for a very long time indeed.
Trump said he would have waited:
"Mistakes were made," Watters told Trump. "They were monitoring this guy for an hour beforehand. No one told you not to take the stage?"
"Nobody mentioned it," the former president replied. "Nobody said it was a problem."
"[They] could've said, 'Let's wait for 15, 20 minutes, 5 minutes.' Nobody said…I think that was a mistake," he added.
Clip of Trump interview with Jesse Watters - Trump says he was never warned of the threat. pic.twitter.com/5TLw0dhCGk
— Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 (@KarluskaP) July 21, 2024
Trump went on to question how the shooter managed to gain access to a rooftop that had a clear sightline to him, even after security had identified the spot as a vulnerability:
"How did somebody get on that roof?" Trump questioned. "And why wasn't he reported, because people saw he was on that roof."
"When you have Trumpers screaming, the woman in the red shirt, 'There's a man on the roof,' and other people, 'There's a man on the roof and who's got a gun,'…that was quite a bit before I walked on the stage. And I would've thought someone would've done something about it," Trump said.
The colossal failures by the Secret Service are impossible to ignore.
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As we reported, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is expected to face the House Oversight Committee on Monday. Prepare for that hearing to be lit as lawmakers demand to know how this could have happened, and how a security force that is supposed to be one of the world’s most elite could have failed so spectacularly. (And how much did their DEI directives distract them from their mission?)
The Watters interview with Trump and Vance is scheduled to be aired in full on Monday night at 8 p.m. ET. I’m sure I’m far from the only American who is extremely curious to hear their assessment of what went down.
In the meantime, the two candidates appeared at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Saturday night, and both survived unscathed. We can at least be thankful for that.
Such was almost not the case, however, on July 13, when a shooting that could have changed the course of history—for the worse—failed by a quarter of an inch. Although the newly-minted GOP nominee escaped with his life, tragedy was not altogether averted—American hero Corey Comperatore lost his life. The questions will not stop, nor should they.
We need answers regarding this apparent dereliction of duty.
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