Trump Assassination Attempt: Line of Sight Questions Go Beyond a Sloped Roof
“Agents would have conducted a site ‘sweep’ that included assessing where a sniper might position themselves.”
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle claimed no one placed security on the roof where Thomas Crooks positioned himself to shoot former President Donald Trump because of a sloped roof.
But the questions regarding the line of sight expand further than the lack of security on the roof.
Olivier Knox at U.S. News & World Report has covered numerous presidential rallies and campaigns.
Knox’s latest article, with Aneeta Mathur-Ashton, detailed the steps the Secret Service would take to secure the former president, especially from potential sniper positions.
Eliminating sniper positions became a priority after JFK’s assassination in 1963:
The Secret Service has well-practiced protocols for securing a rally by a president or major presidential candidate, involving counterassault commandos and sniper teams in addition to the protective detail like the one that swarmed Trump at the podium and covered him with their bodies until word came that the shooter was dead.
Agents would have conducted a site “sweep” that included assessing where a sniper might position themselves. It’s been one of the most well-known threats to presidential security since President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination in Dallas.
These steps include (emphasis mine):
- Posting a Secret Service agent or local law enforcement officer on a rooftop.
- Assigning a counter-sniper team to monitor a rooftop.
- Putting up something to make it impossible to see the stage from a rooftop (a screen, tents – in the past, some campaign rallies even used stacked shipping containers). The armored presidential limousine, nicknamed “The Beast,” regularly pulls into a tent outside events.
- Frequent patrols.
Look at the photos that combat veteran Sean Parnell dropped, which expose the lack of objects guarding Trump’s stage.
Ignore the community note on the second tweet. Sean pointed out that security did not place anything to block that line of sight.
LOOK. Here is another picture. Taken at 6:06pm. I am to the left of the USSS agent, in the front row behind Trump.
LOOK AT THIS.
When shots rang out I immediately thought building, or water tower. But you DO NOT have to be a tactical genius to see why.
Can you see now how close… pic.twitter.com/mSzWTHyLSC— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) July 17, 2024
Everyone needs to see this photo to appreciate the tactical negligence that occurred during the assassination attempt on DJT. This photo was taken just minutes before the first shots were fired. DJT is oriented towards the shooter at this point.
Look in the upper left of this… pic.twitter.com/llrXNfYYTb— Sean Parnell (@SeanParnellUSA) July 16, 2024
One red truck. Nothing else.
Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) insisted every political event for presidents or Congressional candidates required “ALL windows, balconies, parking garages, and roofs with line of sight to the stage are covered and cleared.”
The Secret Service did not sweep the shed.
We also learned that Crooks visited the rally site days before Trump’s rally.
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Comments
And, nowadays, not having drones flying is crazy. Drones are among the cheapest, widest surveillance you can get – and they fly themselves, if need be. Friggin ski races have drones tracking skiers down the slope and golf tournaments have drones all over the place getting great shots. The idea that the secret service wouldn’t be using drones – even just to save money and have greater coverage – is INSANE.
There was a water tower that would have covered that roof. dei director cheatle should resign in disgrace, but she won’t.
No one in the Biden administration has any shame or regret for the poor jobs and damage they do to this country and it’s people… they truly don’t give a damn and that all starts at the top and flows down
Witnesses are reporting shots from that tower.
The Leaky Knoll!
The SS protection of Trump was so bad that it brings to question if Biden hoped that it would allow someone to murder their hated enemy President Trump.
Not just drones but the USSS should be monitoring local police coms as well. If a cop gets on the radio with a report that someone is climbing up on a building with a rifle, they need to hear that in real time.
I know they had drones at the Chesapeake, VA rally a day after the debates.
They also had the scissor lift security node (possibly borrowed from the Navy or AF locally).
Looks to me like they were intentionally bad at their job, hoping for Trump’s death. It is not like that idea is foreign to Democrats.
So far, the “intentionally bad” passes occum’s razor.
The “sloped roof” excuse is possibly the most brain dead excuse I have ever heard come out of a bureaucrats mouth in my lifetime.
Yes, SS Snipers must only use flat roofs, that we they have no hope of cover if they are fired upon. What would make it easier to break line of sight if they were engaged? Maybe a slight slope in the roof?
I mean I understand the dangers, I mean science has yet to gift us with some sort of safety system that they could wear to keep them from falling off of the dreaded sloped roof! Maybe we could call it a “safety” harness, oh, we might even be able to design it into their tactical equipment!
This woman supposedly handled security for Pepsi? I wouldn’t trust her to manage security for a pepsi machine must less anything bigger.
This ‘sloped’ roof excuse might even be more plausible as an excuse to the gullible members of the public…if the photos of the Secret Service counter sniper team didn’t show them positioned on a ‘sloped’ roof. This level of CYA excuse making coupled with DHS now reported to be running interference with the HoR committee for the Secret Service Director and delaying testimony has got to end. IMO all HoR legislative activity should halt. The GoP members in the Senate should throw sand in the parliamentary gears. Continue to do jack crap, including a vote on the ‘minibus’ funding assuming that didn’t already occur, until they get the public testimony without any BS evasions. If they ain’t forthcoming in their answers continue the legislative embargo until they are transparent.
The only reason they’re throwing out the ‘sloped roof’ nonsense is because its the best excuse they can come up with.
Now ask yourself what the truth is, that this is the BEST lie that they can come up with.
How much more damage will incompetent Democrats cause before January 20 next year?
The only things they seem competent in are destruction and deception, furthered by the media, which few believe any more, other than sycophants that pretend virtue.
Their only competence is in being incompetent. SS, border, economy, foreign policy, war on drugs, pretending mental illness is normal.
Pick it. They are epic screw ups.
Screwups? Nope, it’s part of The Plan.
.
Many, if not most, sheeple believe the Regime Media.
The other incredibly suspect issue is this event scheduled by “Dr.” Jill Biden, near President Trump’s, that apparently resulted in members of his SS team being pulled to cover her event. Simply unbelievably suspicious.
If that happened. So far I’ve only seen it attributed to one person, who attributes it to anonymous sources, and I’ve only seen it quoted in unreliable sources.
Check out Naomi Wolf’s substack today.
Interesting article, carefully written, asks interesting questions. Very far from the explicit claims that agents were pulled from Trump’s rally to cover the other event, which have been cited here several times, and as far as I know have only been published on Twitter and on Gateway Pundit (at least nobody has pointed to anywhere else) and all come from one person who claims to have anonymous sources. Wolf is likely referring to that same person’s claims, and merely wondering whether they might have some substance or not.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/advisory-first-lady-jill-biden-travel-pennsylvania-3
And? Nobody questioned that she made this appearance. The claim is that Trump’s detail was depleted for it.
I think the claim is mostly that the experienced agents were pulled for the Dr, and Trump ended up with a lot of inexperienced folks. The depletion of resources is (I think) well known, in general, if not necessarily related to Trump.
And what is the support for that claim? None, as far as I can tell.
The more reporting comes in on this the worse it all sounds.. I can’t believe the SS Director hasn’t resigned yet, or been removed by Corrupt Brandon. What do you have to do to get fired by this Administration? I am angered by the bush league hack response going on here. It’s outrageous. As American Citizens we deserve and should demand better.
“What do you have to do to get fired by this Administration?”
Cross-dressing and wearing a mop wig to work? Nope.
Promising the enemy we’d warn them prior to attacking? Nope.
Whistleblowing FBI corruption? Bingo!
I have lawns that slope more than either of those roofs.
When I was installing wifi service on hundreds of roofs in my immediate area — as a 68-year old with neuropathy and balance issues! — I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second to amble gearless all over either of those roofs. Now just imagine I was fit and buff, like these overpaid federal muscleheads.
Why not assign all of Cheatle‘s DEI hires to Jill’s SS detail.
Dr. Jill want to stay “acting” president…. two different definitions for “acting” in this case.
I am so glad the shooter chose the AR. If he had the standard scoped bolt action deer rifle this would have been successful. The first shot is the only real shot one has.
Hats off to the heroic investigators who have repeatedly scaled the “Butler Roof” to gather information. Danger in the line of duty.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9hso7GumlX/
Cow apparently never went to dei training for walking on sloped roofs. Maybe the cow should be the director of the USSS.
That cow was in the USSS training program. But the CIA hired him away.
DEI nothing-burgers.
Dan Bongino has thoroughly dissected this from the perspective of a former SS member with 12 years experience. His analysis is evolving with each bit of new information, and he has contacts in the SS.
Needless to say, he says this is not the SS he was part of, and is quite PO’ed.
Ineptus in uno, Ineptus in omnibus!
I’ve read from commenters online that DJT has his own (private) security detail. He should, and they obviously need to greatly expand their scope, since the USSA has shown that it is unreliable.
Sorry, USSS.
USSA is United Soviet States of Amerika.
Drones. Trucks.
Come now.
The assassin was plainly visible–so visible that people we pointing him out, yelling that he was there. HE, a 20 year old dork, didn’t flinch and kept crawling.
Where?
On top of a building that purportedly had Secret Service members inside. To act as ‘countersnipers’ To counter threats.
The security knew he was there. They’d known for quite a while.
And they did not ‘do nothing’.
Everything they did facilitated the mission.
What mission?
To eliminate an existential threat to “our democracy”.
There was no ‘failure’ here except OUR failure to understand just how deep the rot goes.
One red truck. Nothing else.
Does the red truck you’re talking about have ‘8230 CASE’ on the side?
That is a farmer’s combine (grain harvester). Mary isn’t a farm girl, I think. 😉
Not sure why it was there, but they needed several more to block the line-of-sight.
I originally thought it was there to hang the Jumbotron from.
A hydraulic hose on the opposite side of the stage next to a John Deere was hit with the expected massive oil spray as a result at about 18 seconds in.
https://x.com/alx/status/1812349512712683587
The number of obvious gaps and failures in security is so great, the reasonable conclusion is that security was supposed to fail. They knew they had a potential sniper using a range finder well in advance of the speech, yet Trump was allowed to take the stage. The Secret Service counter snipers observed the shooter on the roof and did nothing until six seconds after he started shooting.
It’s reasonable to conclude that the same people who lied under oath to FISA courts and Congress, who falsely certified that Hunter Biden’s laptop was simply Russian disinformation, who have engaged in continual lawfare against President Trump, and who have worked to keep a corrupt & senile old man in the White House, are trying to facilitate Trump’s assassination.
It looks to me like the two pictured police snipers on the roof behind Trump did not have magazines in their rifles. That seems odd.
Snipers typically use highly accurate bolt-action rifles, not banana-magged auto or semiauto sprayguns. These may or may not come with internal mags that accommodate two to five more rounds, but they are within the body of the rifle and not externally visible
Check out Dan Bongino on Rumble. You will be amazed at the amount of failures.