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):
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.
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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