Former President Donald Trump says he was not warned about any security risk before the assassination attempt on his life, even though law enforcement was aware of a possible threat before the GOP leader walked onstage at a Pennsylvania rally.
During an interview with the Republican presidential nominee, Fox News’s Jesse Watters asked Trump if security forces at the rally provided any warning that gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was on their radar as a person of concern.
“Nobody mentioned it, nobody said there was a problem,” Trump told Watters during an interview preview set to air in full on Monday.
Trump says it was “a mistake” that law enforcement didn’t neutralize Crooks immediately, saying he would have been happy to delay his speech if someone had warned him about the threat.
“I would’ve waited for 15. They could’ve said let’s wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, five minutes, something,” the former president said to the Fox News host. “Nobody said … I think that was a mistake.”
The 45th president continued to wonder aloud why security didn’t quickly take out the gunman, who was noted as a person of concern.
“You had Trumpers screaming … ‘There’s a man on the roof who’s got a gun.’ And that was quite a bit before I walked onto the stage, so you would’ve thought someone would’ve done something about it,” Trump told Watters.
The Secret Service and law enforcement have come under intense scrutiny for their security footprint at the Butler County event where Trump received a bullet wound and a rally attendee lost their life.
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First noted by law enforcement as he carried a rangefinder through metal detectors at the rally, a local sniper team reportedly identified Crooks as a person of interest an hour before Trump began his speech. The Secret Service reportedly designated him a threat 10 minutes before Trump walked out to roaring crowds.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is facing calls to resign and is set to testify before Congress about the assassination attempt on Monday.