The U.S. homeland security chief said Monday that the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump over the weekend at a political rally was “a failure” in security that could not be allowed to occur again.
“When I say that something like this cannot happen, we are speaking of a failure,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN. “We are going to analyze, through an independent review, how that occurred, why it occurred, and make recommendations and findings to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I couldn’t be clearer.”
Mayorkas told ABC News in another interview that it shouldn’t have been possible for the gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, to fire as many as eight rounds from a high-powered assault weapon at Trump as he did from a rooftop of a nearby business.
The gunman’s vantage point was about 150 meters from where the former president was speaking early Saturday evening in the small Pennsylvania community of Butler in the eastern U.S.
“A direct line of sight like that to the former president should not occur,” Mayorkas said.
One bullet pierced Trump’s right ear, and blood streamed down his face as his Secret Service detail surrounded him and rushed him to safety. One spectator was killed, while two others were critically injured and are hospitalized. A Secret Service sniper killed Crooks.
Trump was not seriously injured in the attack but could easily have been killed. He is set to be officially approved this week by fellow Republicans at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the party’s presidential nominee in the November 5 national election against the Democratic incumbent, President Joe Biden.
Mayorkas said it was still unclear what organization — “externally of the government” — would lead the independent review of the security lapse at the political rally but that it would begin “as quickly as possible.”
The Secret Service, the main security agency for current and former U.S. presidents, is part of the Department of Homeland Security, which Mayorkas leads. He said the investigation findings and recommendations would be made public.
“We need to move with swiftness and urgency because this is a security imperative,” Mayorkas said.
Despite the acknowledged security lapse, Mayorkas expressed support at a White House news conference for the Secret Service and Kimberly Cheatle, its director.
“I have 100% confidence in the director of the United States Secret Service,” Mayorkas said. “I have 100% confidence in the United States Secret Service.”
Biden on Monday ordered Secret Service protection for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate in the November election who trails far behind both Trump and Biden in national polling. Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1963 and his father, Robert F. Kennedy, was slain as he campaigned for the presidency in 1968.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the country’s chief criminal investigative agency, said it was continuing to look for a motive behind Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump, the worst attack on a U.S. president or presidential candidate in more than four decades. The FBI said it was investigating the case as potential domestic terrorism but that the probe was still in its early stages.
The FBI said its technical specialists successfully gained access to Crooks’ phone, and they were continuing to analyze his electronic devices. It said the search of Crooks’ residence and vehicle had been completed.
The investigative agency said it had conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, rally attendees and other witnesses and that the interviews were continuing.
Some people at the rally said they frantically yelled at police when they spotted the gunman on the roof of the nearby building, but that he started firing toward Trump moments later.
