Too many questions remain about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump despite lengthy testimony from acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate, Sen. James Lankford said Wednesday on Newsmax.
"We got about 10% more answers, but we still have a lot to go," the Oklahoma Republican told "Wake Up America." "There are a million questions that are still sitting out there that we're going to continue to be able to press to get answers, not just to be able to find out what happened that day but to make sure that it doesn't happen again."
Lankford, one of the senators questioning the directors during Tuesday's hearing, said he wanted to know more about the 30 seconds between the time when the word "gun" came through the radio and what happened next.
"The FBI said yesterday they do have the transcript of that interplay of what was happening on the radio at that time, but they couldn't turn it over to us," Lankford said.
There are several other questions on why there was not an overhead drone deployed during the event, and the response of local law enforcement, said Lankford.
"Why didn't the Secret Service move to their place as soon as they heard the word 'gun' over the radio in the command center?" he said.
Lankford said there are also still questions about how Trump was able to stand long enough so that the iconic photo of him bleeding could be taken, rather than him being fully covered as he was being rushed from the stage.
"I am always grateful to the Secret Service that literally puts their bodies between danger and the president," Lankford said. "That is a heroic action for them every time they do that, but there are some obvious questions as well."
Lankford added that he thinks part of the issue is that the Secret Service had become "too comfortable and too trusting" after having covered so many large rallies with Trump.
"I think the Secret Service was just lulled into complacency and did not check the plans for local law enforcement and wasn't following through in different areas," Lankford said. "A lot of mistakes were made that day, and they've got to be able to tighten it up."
Although Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director of the Secret Service, Lankford said she should have resigned immediately.
"I think this was an issue of the Secret Service just letting their guard down in that moment from senior leadership and not following through on what their first mandate is," he said.
Lankford also on Wednesday said that he believes the Secret Service's perimeter around the Butler, Pennsylvania, shooting site should have been larger.
"The acting director said that he went up on that rooftop his second day in the job, laid down there, and said, 'We should have covered this spot. It is inexcusable that we were not covering the spot,'" said Lankford. "He is correct at that point, and whoever made that call in the field to say, 'Oh, that's fine, that doesn't need to be covered by us,' they need to be removed from their job."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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