Opinion | The author's opinion does not necessarily reflect Sarah Palin's view.
Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, disclosed serious security lapses leading to the attempted assassination on ex-President Donald Trump during an interview on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast.
Bongino highlighted the absence of law enforcement on the rooftop from which the assailant fired, contradicting explanations about the roof’s pitch being a factor.
He also mentioned pressure on Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle to stay silent on the incident.
Despite calls for resignation, Cheatle remains in her role.
“That post, according to my source, that roof was supposed to be a police post. It was supposed to be someone there. They’re now making up excuses, saying the pitch of the roof… my source says to me, no one knows why the post didn’t show up,” Bongino said.
“That building in particular has 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,” Cheatle said. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”
Bongino emphasized the critical security oversight that jeopardized Trump’s safety and promised to unveil more details on his radio show.
“They’re not putting that out there. But if you get those site post logs and those police instructions and it was a post on there and they didn’t show up and no one checked, someone could have got your dad killed,” Bongino said. “Within millimeters.”
“You’re telling me the best technology you have was deployed and you missed a shooter 130 yards? Say it was 200 yards. The Secret Service CS team, Pete, the counter-sniper team? And I’m not sure those two guys are Secret Service. We have to remember that we don’t always, when we go to New York sometimes with high-level protectees we’ll use NYPD ESU counter-sniper. So I’m not really sure,” Bongino said.
“Either way, they’d still be briefed in. The question we have to ask is, if that’s the best technology we have, and we had a CS team up there with a shooter that, you know, we’re trained out to a thousand yards in the Secret Service with the counter-sniper team. How did they miss someone at most, you know, one-fifth of the way there? It doesn’t make any sense.”
