‘Who Failed?’: CNN Host Presses Mayorkas On Secret Service’s Response To Trump Assassination Attempt

CNN host Kate Bolduan pushed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to answer to the Secret Service’s response in the lead up to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

The Secret Service’s protection during the Saturday rally has come under intense scrutiny given that a gunman had the ability to fire into the arena, leaving one dead and others injured. Agents fatally took out the alleged shooter, who has been identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, as he opened fire from the roof of a nearby building.

Mayorkas ensured an independent review is being conducted into the incident ahead of the Republican National Convention.

“Do you call this a security failure on the part of the Secret Service?” Bolduan asked.

“An incident like this cannot happen, that is precisely why President Biden directed an independent review so that that review, its conclusions and its recommendations have the full confidence of the American public,” Mayorkas said. “We will carefully analyze in an independent and thorough fashion what occurred and recommendations will be made. Those recommendations will be implemented. We are in a dynamic threat environment, we adapt to that dynamism every single day and changes have been made to the Republican National Convention just as the eighteen month planning calls for. It calls for changes based on changes in the threat environment, and that is where we are now.”

Bolduan questioned the DHS secretary on who particularly failed to ensure the safety of Trump and the participants in the rally.

“If you don’t want to say because a review is still happening, who? Who failed in terms of the security around this rally? Do you agree that it was a failure?” Bolduan asked. “You said this cannot happen. But first and foremost, before you make sure you make the changes, you have to acknowledge what a failure this was.”