'He Got Off 8 Shots': Stephen Lynch Laces Into Secret Service Director Over Trump Shooting

5 months ago

At a House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) spoke about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Director Cheadle, there were multiple security failures at

00:06the former president's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. First of all, there was a

00:11failure to isolate the podium from exposure to direct fire. Do we know who

00:20made that decision to allow that rooftop to remain as an

00:29unprotected area? Do we know who came up with that security plan that omitted

00:34that? Sir, I don't have a specific person to identify. Okay, well that's what I'm

00:41looking for, so let's let's move on. There's also a breakdown in security and

00:46failure to confront the shooter over an hour before the former president began

00:51his remarks when the shooter was identified as a person of interest. What

00:58particularly allowed agents or law enforcement to identify him as a person

01:06of interest? So I appreciate the question and again I will say that we

01:10are nine days out and there are a multitude of interviews that are still

01:14taking place. Okay, so did he have a rangefinder? There were some reports that

01:18that the individual had a rangefinder. That would that would certainly raise my

01:23suspicion. Did he have a rangefinder? Yes, he did, but may I explain that at a

01:30number of our sites, especially when you're at outdoor venues, a rangefinder

01:35is not a prohibited item. It is sometimes an item that is brought in by

01:38individuals. Anybody confront him on that? Anybody ask him questions? What are

01:44you doing with the rangefinder? Anybody confront him on on his presence where he

01:51was in proximity to the president? So again, to my knowledge, I believe that

01:55that was the process that was taking place was to locate the individual. Did

01:58they confront him? Did they go up to him? Did they talk to him? I do not have

02:03those details at this time. Those are important details. Uh,

02:09it was also a failure to communicate between law enforcement to act quickly

02:14upon information provided by either local law enforcement or rally attendees

02:19that the suspect was positioned on the roof. There were minutes of delay

02:24before any meaningful action was taken, even though he was several 100 ft from

02:31the podium. And this was obviously minutes before the shooting.

02:39Let me ask you, there was considerable delay in removing the president

02:44from the podium after the shooting began. He got shot in the air. It was

02:49still over a minute before he was removed from the stage. Meanwhile, this

02:55shooter had multiple clips, several clips. He got off eight shots, and he

03:01had the capacity and the ability, if he was not neutralized to to basically

03:08mow down that whole Secret Service detachment as well as the president.

03:14Um,

03:16what from your own investigation caused that that delay under the

03:22circumstances?

03:24What I can tell you is that when the agents identified that the shooting was

03:29taking place in under three seconds, they threw themselves on. I understand

03:35that there was heroism there. No question about it. No question about it.

03:39But

03:40protocol would indicate and these air, you know, these air, uh, the opinions

03:46of various former Secret Service agents, people who have done this work in the

03:51past that over a minute of exposure on that podium with with a shooter with a

03:59high capacity weapon who had already wounded the president and could have

04:06got off. We don't know how many more rounds. Um, and yet the president

04:12remained exposed, even though he was joined in that exposure by the Secret

04:17Service in their heroic acts. It just, uh, it I don't know if there's a good

04:23explanation for that. Our personnel created a body bunker on top of I get

04:29shielding him. Yeah, this was this was an air 15 style weapon that would have

04:34made pretty quick work if he was determined and able to do so. This is

04:39not the first investigation that we've had of the Secret Service during my

04:42time here on this committee. And the last one we had, uh, our previous

04:48investigation determined that the Secret Service was experienced a

04:51staffing crisis that poses perhaps the greatest threat to the agency. And

04:55that's a quote. Is that staffing crisis still in place? Is that still

05:01something that you deal with on a daily basis? As of today, the Secret

05:05Service has just over 8000 employees. We continue to hire, uh, knowing that

05:10we need to ensure that we keep pace with what would be the full compliment

05:14of get him a time to try. But please answer the question. Yeah,

05:19I'm sorry. What would be the full compliment that you're looking for?

05:22You've got 8000. And how many? How many would be a full compliment for for the

05:26service? So we're we're still striving towards a number of 95 100 employees

05:32approximately in order to be able to meet future and emerging needs. Okay,

05:36thank you, Mr Chairman. For your courtesy, I yield back recognizes Dr

05:39Fox from North Carolina. Thank you, Mr Chairman. Director Cheadle.

'He Got Off 8 Shots': Stephen Lynch Laces Into Secret Service Director Over Trump Shooting

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