Former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance are seeking answers regarding the assassination attempt on Trump earlier this month.
The pair sat down with Fox News‘ Jesse Watters Monday to discuss the shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13.
Trump said former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle — who resigned Tuesday — visited with Trump following the assassination attempt.
“It went very nicely. She was very nice, I thought. But, you know, somebody should have made sure there was nobody on that roof,” Trump said.
The person who reached the roof was Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fired several shots at Trump about 130 yards away.
Now, investigators are trying to determine how the 20-year-old man from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was able to get a clear shot of Trump.
Michael Difrischia, an eyewitness who filmed Crooks lying down on top of the American Glass Research building with an AR-style rifle, explained what he saw.
“I saw a younger kid running through the crowd and somebody had spoke[n] up [and] said the guy had a gun,” Difrischia told “The Ingraham Angle”.
“The problem was the police officers were too close to the building. They could not see him,” he said. “We were trying to tell them he’s right there, he’s right there, but they just couldn’t see him.”
Others tried to warn police officers of a shooter.
Crooks opened fire with one of his bullets grazing Trump’s ear and another killing former Pennsylvania fire chief Corey Comperatore.
Trump said he could not believe how close Crooks was able to get.
“They said it’s really, it’s a — a bad shot would usually hit the target. And so I mean, it’s got to be, somebody’s got to be there. And it’s essentially a flat roof. I mean, I noticed that she [Cheatle] said, well, this is a slope roof where you think of like a barn where you have, this thing had just a little — a little upswing in it, a few degrees. This was a not — it essentially was a flat roof,” Trump said.
Cheatle told ABC News the building had 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 said.
Trump believes Cheatle was given “false information” regarding the slope of the roof as a reason there were no Secret Service agents on the building.
Trump challenged why he wasn’t told to stay off the stage for 5-20 minutes if there was a potential threat.
“You have to answer why couldn’t I have stayed off the stage for five minutes while they do their work? Why couldn’t, you know, how does a situation happen where a roof that’s plainly in sight from the location where I was speaking… why would somebody not have seen that?” he asked.
Cheatle resigned as she and the Secret Service were under fire over apparent security lapses at the rally, IJR reported.
Trump lauded how the Secret Service agents rushed to cover him after as the shooting occurred.
Trump also said his ear is healing.
“We’re getting down to the small bandages. But it was a nasty one. And it was nasty, period. That was exactly one week ago from today, exactly. And, you know, when you think about it, it’s — that’s been a lot of territory covered,” he said.
“Who — who would’ve thought this was going to be happening? But it happened. And I got very lucky, or God, I think it was God, actually,” Trump said.
