Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Newsmax on Wednesday that "there was failure all around" the Secret Service's protections for former President Donald Trump ahead of the shooting at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee released a bipartisan interim report on Wednesday that details the "failures" by both the Secret Service and local law enforcement to secure Trump's Pennsylvania rally where an attendee was killed during an assassination attempt against the Republican candidate.
Gimenez said on "National Report" that the shooting "was a massive failure on the part of the Secret Service to protect the president."
He added that while the Secret Service claimed the roof "was too steep," he found it to be "a very gentle slope," adding that "anybody could stand up there. I'm 70 years old, I had no problem getting up there."
Gimenez said that from the shooter's position, "It's an easy shot" at where Trump was standing during the rally, noting that several trees "block the view of the snipers that were supposed to be guarding that particular building."
He added, "The sniper teams, they knew that that building was a threat and yet they couldn't see all of it because of the trees. They should have never set up there."
The congressman said that their investigation also revealed that the Secret Service "didn't have a unified command post" at the rally" and "they didn't have direct communications because local law enforcement knew that there was a guy on that roof sometime before the actual shots were fired."
Gimenez faulted the Secret Service for having "a failure to communicate," which he said is a "basic security measure," and said, "there was failure all around here."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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