Donald Trump Jr., former President Trump’s eldest son, described as “nonsense” the Secret Service director’s concerns about the sloped nature of the roof perched upon by the gunman who shot at the former president during a rally over the weekend.
Trump Jr. joined Fox News’s Sean Hannity from the Republican National Convention on Tuesday to discuss the aftermath of his father’s attempted assassination.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Tuesday that the sloped roof of the building climbed by the shooter had “safety factor” considerations, and that’s why law enforcement was not on top of the building but rather inside of it.
Trump Jr. said he knows many Secret Service agents, and “they’re not worried about a sloped roof.”
“I can assure you … these are — especially the guys that I’ve known, and … some of them will be lifelong friends — they’re not worried about a 5-degree pitch on a sloped roof,” he said. “Like, that’s nonsense. That’s not an excuse.”
“It’s the dumbest excuse,” Trump Jr. added, pointing to locations of other agents on sloped roofs during the shooting.
On Saturday, a bullet grazed the ear of former president, who was officially named the GOP nominee for the White House earlier this week, during a rally in Butler, Pa. The gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, allegedly climbed a building adjacent to where Trump was giving a speech and fired shots at him.
Crooks and one event attendee were killed in the shooting, and two others were critically injured, the Secret Service said.
Concerns about the level of security around the area have risen and sparked calls for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to step down — which Cheatle has rejected.
Trump Jr. also pointed to video footage that emerged showing rally attendees noticed the shooter on top of the roof before he began firing to make his argument about the inadequacy of the security.
The former president’s son said Saturday after the shooting his father was in “great spirits” and he will “never stop fighting to save America.”
In his first public appearance since the rally, Trump appeared at the RNC with a bandage over his right ear.
“You know, the fact that he turned his head at that moment … I’m not an overly spiritual guy, right,” Trump Jr. said Tuesday of the shooting. “But that is divine intervention.”