By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
July 13, 2024, is a day that we can add to our list of “Where were you when…” events that sadly, more often than not, refer to tragic events — the worst being man made. In my lifetime, they began with successful assassinations: JFK, MLK, RFK, and attempted ones; President Ford, President Reagan, and those are the ones we actually know about. I cannot begin to express my level of gratitude that the attempt on President Trump’s life was in my view divinely thwarted, and that does not stem from a political position. I think we would have seen a “long, hot summer” that would have badly crippled or perhaps even destroyed our republic had the now iconic “tilt of the head” not taken place. We might not have been stable enough to have had an election in November, irrespective of the candidates. In a word, Donald Trump, and by extension we as Americans, were spared by crazy grace. We certainly don’t deserve it, but hopefully we’ll take it and do something genuinely righteous with it.
That being said, the title of this Point stems from a reason, er, excuse, as to why the attempt on President Trump’s life got as far as it did. It was “the slope of the roof” from whence Mr. Crooks shot and killed Corey Comperatore, critically wounded David Dutch, and wounded James Copenhaver. The exact quote to which I am referring was made by Kim Cheatle, the Director of the Secret Service on ABC News:
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” said Ms. Cheatle. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside,” she told the news organization.
This is just lame! Ms. Cheatle, are you actually going to expect Americans to believe that it was appropriate to “secure the building from inside,” which meant that Mr. Crooks was above your heads and had, by the way, already allegedly threatened a police officer who was heading up the ladder to confront him? When the advance security team had arrived before the rally, would there have been any safety equipment available that could prevent a fall that is used by oh, I don’t know, roofing crews? How about a bucket truck used by utilities workers when they are installing or repairing power lines? At the risk of sounding like a hand-wringing OSHA-ite that would have wanted the juxtaposed counter-snipers to be wearing helmets rather than standard over-watch hats, I would like to put forth the obvious: those sniper guys took the shot that took out Mr. Crooks from a roof with a steeper pitch, no bucket trucks, no safety harnesses. What is wrong with this picture, and will the Congressional hearings beginning on July 22 be able to successfully call for accountability? In our family, we have a saying for things like this. It is, “Buckets of popcorn, extra butter, please.” That is, besides praying, all we can do is make sure there is enough popcorn to go around while this movie plays out.
My husband, in an attempt to not appear to be too conspiratorial, calls the entire debacle a “collusion masked by incompetence.” I agree.
September 6, 2024
