CNN reported on Tuesday that, according to their analysis, witnesses saw the gunman who targeted former President Donald Trump for one minute and fifty-seven seconds before he opened fire.
Several people at the rally reported seeing Thomas Matthew Crooks before he began his attack, but CNN’s analysis revealed a more detailed time frame. Anchors John Berman and Sara Sidner spoke to former CIA counterterrorism official Phil Mudd and former Boston police commissioner Ed Davis to dive into how Crooks was able to perch himself on a rooftop with a clear line of sight to aim a rifle at Trump — without anyone stopping him:
Berman: Commissioner, I just want to start with you. One minute and 57 seconds. That’s a long time. It is a long time. I mean, what are the questions you have about that length? What do we need to know as these investigations continue?
Davis: It is, John, good morning to both of you. So, there’s a lot of questions. Why that perimeter was so small. I mean, I understand having been involved in a bunch of these protection details, the presidential details, much larger than anybody else. Vice president or First Lady, and in this case, the former president. However, there’s a there’s a team that goes in there to look at things beforehand. And those buildings had to be a major concern. One issue that keeps popping up is the fact that apparently there were police officers assigned to the interior of that building, and that complicates things. I’m sure that the sniper had that in his mind when he saw someone climb up on the roof. So there’s that ambiguity in the mind of the person responsible for taking, you know, cover usually much farther out than 200 yards. Those snipers are looking out a thousand yards with those scopes. So that close up is sort of a no man’s land there. Clearly there was, there was confusion there. The other thing is that I can’t understand why, with all the radio traffic that was going on, of a suspicious person, man on the roof, why they didn’t just bundle the president up and take him off the stage in that minute and 57 seconds. So all those questions have to be answered.
Watch the video above via CNN.
