Former Secret Service agent and talk show host Dan Bongino questioned how security missed former President Donald Trump’s would-be assassin, as newly unearthed footage captured on a cellphone was able to spot the shooter on the roof.
The would-be assassin, who has been identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was visible in cellphone video moving across the roof across from Trump for a few seconds, then reappearing just a few seconds later. Bongino, who previously served in the Secret Service for 12 years, referenced how acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe had claimed the locals stated they were working through “an issue” with the area where Crooks was, or “the three o’clock.”
“If you’re looking at the three o’clock, how the hell do you miss this?!” Bongino said on his show. “This is a cell phone camera! Geen went to school for film stuff. This is not a zoom, high, telephoto, freaking lens used to film a Marvel movie! It’s a cellphone! You can see the guy clear as day! How did they miss this?!”
Bongino then asked those who are still defending the Secret Service’s handling of securing Trump, “What is left to defend?” He argued that with so many failures happening with this event, the defenders are asking people “to believe the implausible.”
Rowe claimed Tuesday that neither the Secret Service countersniper teams nor members of Trump‘s security detail had “any knowledge” that there was a shooter with a gun on the roof. He also called the assassination attempt of Trump a “failure on multiple levels”
Rowe took over as acting director after Kimberly Cheatle resigned from the position following her testimony before the House Oversight Committee last month. Bongino argued Cheatle needed to resign immediately for her “apocalyptic security failure” on security at Trump’s event.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, happened two days before the 2024 Republican National Convention, where Trump became the party’s presidential nominee.
Podcast host Joe Rogan said he initially believed the shooting would have guaranteed Trump’s victory in the election. However, he now says the press has “memory-holed” the assassination attempt very quickly, and that Vice President Kamala Harris could end up being the victor.
