Donald Trump flouted his Secret Service detail and stood up to pose for a photograph after a gunman fired shots at him during a rally, and security experts were "flabbergasted" by the reaction to that apparent assassination attempt.
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle is facing intense criticism for security failures that failed to stop 20-year-old Thomas Crooks from firing several shots toward the former president at a rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, but NBC News correspondent Ken Dilanian raised questions on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" about Trump's personal security detail.
"A lot of people said they acted heroically after the shots were fired and they did," Dilanian said. "They rushed into the line of gunfire to cover up Donald Trump. Most experts I talk to praise those initial seconds but then after that they are appalled about what happened. They allowed the protectee to dictate the pace, that is not what they are trained to do. They are trained to manhandle, to tackle, to pick up the principal and rush him to safety regardless of what he wants."
Agents quickly brought Trump to the ground after the shots whizzed past, grazing his ear, but then remained onstage for over a minute and allowed the former president to stand up and raise his fist for an instantly iconic photograph, although they would not have known whether additional shooters were present.
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"We talked about former Secret Service agents and people who have worked with the State Department and British military, they were all flabbergasted that, first of all, you hear Mr. Trump saying, 'I need to get my shoes,' and they slow down and then they appear to try to be hustling him off the stage," Dilanian said. "By the way, at that point as you noted, his head was above their head. He was in danger if there was a second shooter. Then you hear him say, 'Wait, wait, wait,' and he pumps his fist at the crowd in a gesture of showmanship. That was a brilliant political move, but if there had been a second shooter – and remember, there was intelligence that the Iranians are plotting to kill Donald Trump in retaliation for his ordering of a targeted killing of a general."
"If there had been a second shooter Mr. Trump was exposed to that gunfire, and we are told that's not how it's supposed to happen," he added. "What's perplexing to me is you see retired Secret Service agents defending conduct that my sources say is indefensible."
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