Mohave Today

Arizona State Rep. John Gillette (R-30), who previously worked security detail for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said this weekend's attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump (R) is a "mistake that just doesn't happen."

Prior to his stint in the Arizona legislature, Gillette served in the U.S. Army, within law enforcement counter-terrorism units and on Department of Defense security protection details for both Presidents Bush and Obama.

“There is no way, no way that anyone, even a brand-new agent, even a brand-new rookie out of any police academy is going to leave an unguarded rooftop within 130 yards from an elevated position, [with a] direct line of sight from POTUS [the President of the United States]. It’s just not going to happen. This is a mistake that just doesn’t happen. That’s how egregious it is,” Gillette told Mohave Today. 

Gillette characterized the lack of security on a rooftop, like the one that alleged gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks fired from, as “a breakdown” in security procedures and said his overall take was that the Director of the U.S. Secret Service, Kimberly A. Cheatle, “should resign.”

“You have one mission, and that’s protect the principal. There are different levels of protection in each package, in each venue, in each threat for that area, which is weighed on a scale. What package are we going to deploy with this venue today? How long are we going to be on station? What’s the visibility? These things come into play, and those are the questions I have.”

Gillette said that in advance of any appearance by a V.I.P., including a U.S. President, the U.S. Secret Service will follow an operations order to scout the venue, look for any hazards that could potentially pose a security risk and examine the area from all available vantage points.

In the event of a threat, Gillette explained a code word would be radioed to inform the Secret Service to act immediately and secure the individual whom agents were assigned to protect, called the “principal.”

“So let’s say that call went out. The Secret Service would have moved before the shot. So that tells me the call never went out. There was no radio traffic indicating a threat. Although we have people, citizens in the crowd standing by pointing, ‘Hey, there’s a guy on the rooftop with a gun!’ I’ve analyzed a ton of video. I’ve spoken with people in the business, retirees and people out of the business now. And we all agree that at least at a bare minimum, somebody should have been on the radio calling out whatever the threat word of the day was and getting him out of there, not reacting after the shot,” Gillette said.

“Now after the shot, the reaction was very swift, less than two seconds. They formed a body bunker. Trump obviously, with his personality, didn’t remember his training or just [showed] outright defiance by standing up, pumping the fist. But I mean, that’s who that guy is. And generally when we would practice this, when securing people, when I was on the inner perimeter and on the close protection detail, you’re grabbing that principal and you may likely hurt that individual because they don’t have a choice. We’re grabbing him and moving him in a body bunker or a diamond formation to the evacuation vehicle, shoving him in the vehicle. There’s no standing up, posting your face, posting your chest. What if there’s multiple shooters? What if there’s an IED? You form a close protection circle around that individual. You move them to the evac vehicle, and the evac vehicle goes. And the routes are planned. You have medical there, everything is a well-coordinated event. This did not have the hallmarks of a well-coordinated event.”

Gillette rhetorically asked how we have arrived at a point where a former U.S. President and current presidential candidate is nearly killed due to policy failures.

“There are so many errors that a first-year rookie would have not made, that were made in this this assassination attempt. And you’ve got to remember, these guys, they rotate around. They don’t always work for the same principal, but your inner and outer perimeter teams, your advanced teams, they may not work the same person all the time, but they do the same job. Every event, it’s repetitive. This is your sole function. This is ingrained into your soul. This is what you do. And to make these kind of mistakes just doesn’t even seem plausible,” Gillette said.