A new poll out Thursday found an overwhelming majority of Americans say the Secret Service bears some responsibility for the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump last month.
According to the Associated Press survey, 7 in 10 Americans believe “the Secret Service bears at least a moderate amount of responsibility for the assassination attempt” with 4 in 10 believing the agency “bears a high level of responsibility.”
The AP poll also found 3 in 10 said they were “extremely or very confident” the agency can keep presidential contenders safe.
The survey results were published just a week after the Secret Service requested the Trump campaign halt outdoor rallies ostensibly without the same handicap placed on the former president’s Democrat challenger. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle also resigned in disgrace last week as new details continued to surface exposing the agency’s reckless disregard for the safety of the Republican presidential nominee. Cheatle stepped down after testifying before the House Oversight Committee wherein the Secret Service chief struggled to answer lawmakers’ questions and said her agency had no radio recordings from the day Trump was shot.
Part of the former president’s right ear was blown off by a would-be assassin at a Pennsylvania rally last month after the gunman fired off eight shots in under six seconds killing a rallygoer and injuring two others, in addition to Trump. The 20-year-old shooter fired from the rooftop roughly 150 yards from the stage. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., released bodycam footage Tuesday of officers after the shooting spree wherein they spoke about spotting the killer before the attempted assassination.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, Jr. testified before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees on Tuesday and said after a visit to the rally site at Butler, Pennsylvania, “I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”
“What I saw made me ashamed,” he said, while firing no one at the agency since taking over as acting director.
Cheatle had previously told ABC News that the building from which Trump’s failed assassin fired was the responsibility of local police, and said the roof was left vacant because it was “sloped.”
“…there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she said.
A former roofer explained in a column for The Federalist why Cheatle’s “‘Sloped’ Roof Excuse Is Total Nonsense.”
“Contrary to Director Cheatle’s statement,” wrote Dmitri Rutkowski, the “two- to four-pitch industrial roof is not too ‘sloped.'”
“It presents no special ‘safety factor’ for agents to walk,” Rutkowski explained. “It is low-pitch, and people can comfortably stand and maneuver upon it. The killer easily climbed and moved around on it, and the internet is replete with images of agents comfortably walking it.”
A whistleblower report warned this week the Secret Service is unprepared for more assassination attempts on the former Republican president before the election in November.