During a portion of an interview with CNN on Tuesday that was released on Wednesday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said that the perimeter around 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump’s rally “encompassed the area that we needed to secure for the event that we had on that day.”
CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent Whitney Wild asked, “CNN, of course, has reporting that the Secret Service increased security for former President Trump because of a credible threat from Iran. I’ve spoken with several people who look at the perimeter, hearing that news, look at the perimeter, and say, how, knowing that there was a credible threat against the former President, how could that perimeter be so small that it excluded a building just 150 yards away from the podium?”
Cheatle responded, “I can’t get into the specifics of any threats, but, obviously, with all of our protectees, we’re constantly monitoring the threats that are out there and we design our security plan based on that, also, depending on the venue and the environment that we’re in. And, on that particular day, a full advance had been completed, but this is also why we are doing an internal review and we look forward to the external review as well. And, obviously, if there are things that we need to change about our policies or our procedures or our methods, we are certainly going to do so.”
Wild then asked, “Was that perimeter too small?”
Cheatle answered, “The perimeter encompassed the area that we needed to secure for the event that we had on that day. What happened is a terrible incident and should never happen. And we are, obviously, going to make sure that, moving forward, we take whatever lessons that come out of this and adjust accordingly.”
Cheatle also stated that there weren’t any assets from the Secret Service that were directed from the Trump visit to First Lady Jill Biden’s visit.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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