Following the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, one topic has been on virtually everyone’s minds — left, right and center: How was the shooter able to get off eight shots at the former president from such a close distance? By all accounts, the day was filled with numerous failures and lapses in security. To help evaluate what went wrong, Blaze News spoke to experts, including a 24-year veteran of the Secret Service, to answer some of the most obvious questions that Americans are asking. As more news continues to leak about the events of last Saturday, more questions continue to arise about law enforcement’s response to Thomas Matthew Crooks on the day of the shooting. For example, Fox News reported that Crooks’ parents reported him missing to police. CNN also reported that Crooks was checked by security outside the event hours prior and was found to have been carrying a range finder. It was also later discovered that Crooks had two remote explosive devices in his car. How was someone whose presence was noted as suspicious to the police able to obtain an easy line of sight to the former president at such short range? Why were agents so slow to respond even after Crooks was spotted on the roof? In terms of official answers, these questions remain unanswered, except for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s excuse that the roof was sloped at the top, thus making it an apparently insurmountable safety hazard. The rooftop To answer some of these questions, Blaze News spoke to Kenneth Valentine, a retired Secret Service agent with 24 years of experience. Valentine retired at the rank of special agent in charge of the Dignitary Protective Division. He also served on the Presidential Protective Detail for 10 years. Having worked for Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, the former agent called the Pennsylvania shooting a failure of prevention, describing such a “close call” as “someone else’s loss and failure.” “That doesn’t happen except in training ... and what happened [to Trump], that doesn’t happen either.” When asked directly about the Secret Service director’s reasoning for not putting an agent on the rooftop in question, he said he disagreed with Cheatle’s reasoning but indicated that he also would not have placed agents there, for other reasons. “A sloped roof is not a good enough reason to not put someone up there.” “That would not be my first choice either,” he continued. “Posting that roof with an officer poses risks to an officer that are unnecessary. Done correctly, you would post multiple officers on the ground outside that building that prevents ... anyone, especially someone with a weapon, to get access to that high ground overlooking a secured venue.” Dallas Alexander, former sniper and record-holder for the longest recorded sniper kill in history (2.2 miles), told Blaze News that the nearby rooftop being uncovered made “no sense” to him. “This is the closest building to where the former/potential future president is going to be speaking. 150 yards is an extremely easy shot to make, even with minimal amounts of training. There is a ladder ... on to a rooftop that was not secured, that close to where Donald Trump is speaking,” he said in confusion. “It makes absolutely no sense,” he added. Comms and surveillance With reports showing Crooks walking around, appearing to survey the very rooftop he would later use, citizens — and experts — are demanding answers regarding the apparent lack of communications between law enforcement agencies on site. Videos circulated online appear to show that approximately two minutes passed between the time local attendees pointed out the shooter to authorities and the first shot being fired. Many have suggested that with even minimal communication, Crooks should have been stopped well before shots were fired. “Communication is so key, and it’s what can save the day,” Valentine stated. Valentine explained that it is up to the Secret Service to plan the communications for an event like a presidential rally. This would include a “command post that would be staffed with not only Secret Service but every other law enforcement agency that is participating in the security plan.” 'They went out and looked at those buildings, they numbered those buildings ... they knew this building well, I assure you.' “Communication is what’s supposed to happen there. Ideally, if agents and officers working in tandem ... encounter a man with a gun, that would be communicated twice. Once by the Secret Service, and once by the officer or detective that’s there so that the command post has the information they need to relay that to the working shift, to the snipers, and the assault team,” Valentine explained. The retired agent said he was somewhat baffled by the fact that Crooks was able to walk around the area without being stopped again. He explained that there are supposed to be teams of Secret Service or law enforcement personnel tasked specifically to be on the lookout for such suspicious persons. “That’s what those teams are out there to do — to spot the duck amongst the geese.” “You’re out there looking for what doesn’t belong. If you have someone in a trench coat on a hot day, you go talk to that person. If you see someone behaving erratically ... you check it out, you go ask them.” Valentine noted that it’s not even unusual to encounter people getting onto rooftops in situations like these. “You go check it out. You have a team that’s dedicated to going to rooftops to talk to people that are opening windows in venues that are overlooking the event ... you go check it out.” “That happens, we deal with it, but looks like to me that the plan was not executed.” Despite the existence of a checkpoint at the outskirts of the secure area — where Crooks was found with the range finder — Valentine guaranteed that people in the general area of the event are still under surveillance, even if they do not go through the checkpoint. This includes any person behaving suspiciously in the general area, as well as any suspicious vehicles nearby. “That area should be somewhat saturated with law enforcement to ensure no one gains access to high ground,” he specified. In fact, Valentine said that the very existence of snipers in the area meant that the security team did an advanced, detailed scouting of their surroundings. “They went out and looked at those buildings, they numbered those buildings ... they knew this building well, I assure you.” Despite the constantly changing dynamics of a security landscape like a presidential rally, Valentine still said the shooting “should have been prevented.” Alexander also added that what he saw constituted massive gaps in security from a team that should not assume anything will go according to plan. As he stated in a now-viral video post, Alexander said he believes based on his experience that Crooks likely was assisted in his assassination attempt in some way. “I believe that — because I was in a sniper counterterrorism unit for a lot of years, we did a lot of close protection for a lot of years. ... This is beyond just a lapse in security; this is beyond a small gap not being watched.” “I believe ... that he had help from somewhere,” Alexander said. Both experts called for an in-depth investigation as to how there could be so many failures at one single event, especially one involving a presidential candidate.

Somebody tried to kill Donald Trump over the weekend because he was convinced that Trump's a fascist. Let’s look into that definition. What exactly does it mean to be a fascist? The media is convinced that Trump is in the same echelon as Hitler, yet journalists never say what it actually means to be a "fascist." How convenient. It appears some definitions of fascism have changed recently in the dictionaries that conveniently appear to reflect the leftist agenda driving the media narrative. Having read them, I can see why you might think Donald Trump is a fascist.If you can’t trust your vote, you don’t have a democracy. You don’t have a republic. You have nothing.According to Encyclopedia Britannica, for example, fascism is a:Political ideology and mass movement that dominated many parts of central, southern, and eastern Europe between 1919 and 1945. ... Although fascist parties and movements differed significantly from one another, they had many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism.Let’s break this down. First, many people may claim that Donald Trump is a fascist because he wants a strong military. Yes, he does want a strong military, but as a means of deterrence, not aggression. When you have strength, nobody wants to hit you because they know you'll hit back — and probably hit back harder. You need to be the tough guy on the playground.Tough guys often do become fascistic, however. They promote “forever wars” by interfering in foreign conflicts. That's what makes Trump different than most Republicans. Trump hates war and hates the conflict of war. That’s why he separated from so many people on the right for so long. Luckily, many of us have woken up and realized that these wars that our leaders put us in never end. They're ridiculous to fight. We always seem to lose in the end, one way or another, because it's not our responsibility to go in and tell other people how to live. That’s not fascistic. I just think that’s right. The Encyclopedia Britannica continues to describe fascists as having a “contempt for the electoral democracy.” We've been having a discussion recently about what a democracy is. Are we a democracy, or are we a republic? You can do your own homework on this. America’s founders were very clear. In fact, when Ben Franklin walked out of the constitutional convention and a woman asked him what form of government they had adopted, he answered, "A republic, if you can keep it." This was something that we all understood up until Woodrow Wilson started changing things.Democracies last for a very short time. The average constitution lasts 17 years, but our Constitution is coming up on its 235th anniversary. Why? Because we have balanced democracy with a republic. Democracy is “one man, one vote.” You vote for a representative. Once you are done voting, then the representative begins to vote on your behalf. That’s where it’s gotten screwed up because we’re not electing good and honest people — people with our own values. It’s also screwed up because we can’t trust our vote. If you can’t trust your vote, you don’t have a democracy. You don’t have a republic. You have nothing.This is why the Republicans have been saying that we need paper ballots. We need to have ID requirements on Election Day. This is not something that fascists do. This is something that they do at your 7-Eleven when you go to buy beer. This is something you must have if you’re driving a car. This is something you need if you're going to college or applying for work in many places. You need to have an ID to vote. That’s not racist. That’s not fascist. That’s protecting the “democratic” part of our democratic republic.Yet the government wants you to have some sort of a vaccine ID to enter buildings. How could you be in favor of the government interfering in a decision as personal to you and your body as getting an experimental drug? Yet you don't want people to have any form of ID to show that they're a citizen and a registered voter? That is not a democracy. That’s just corruption. Encyclopedia Britannica also defines fascism as “a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites.” This is something that I used to disagree with vehemently for a long time with liberals. They used to say, “These corporations are going to take over the world because they're so powerful.” They were right. In my lifetime, I never thought a corporation could be as powerful, corrupt, and controlling as the government. Before AI and before Google, elites didn't have that power. But they have that power now. We are now living under the ruling of elites. If you didn’t go to the right college, if you don’t hold the right opinion, you’re not an elite. You’re an idiot. And we “idiots” are told to only listen to the elites.Encyclopedia Britannica also says that fascism is “a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a ... ‘people’s community.’” This is where it gets interesting. This is where they equate Donald Trump’s love for his country to “nationalism.” They think he’s trying to replicate 1930s Germany. That is deeply misguided. What makes us great isn't about any particular race. What makes us different is our heritage.This society was forged by people who came here from all over the world. How could we possibly be anti-immigrant? People self-selected to come here and forge the West. Have you watched a Western? Have you watched a cowboy movie? Have you watched “1883”? Have you watched “The Magnificent Seven”? Have you seen “Horizon,” the new Kevin Costner film? These people were insane. I have a grandmother who lost an eye while crossing the mountains. She just yanked it out and said, "Keep moving." These people were nuts. That's what made us. That’s what makes us different. Our heritage is one of explorers, of risk takers. That’s why we’re good entrepreneurs.But in fascist Germany and Italy, individual interest was subordinated to the good of the nation. The individual didn’t matter. It was the collective that mattered. That’s a key sign of fascism.Who is the champion of the individual? Who is the figurehead of the party who champions the collective? Let me answer that clearly: Donald Trump is an enemy of the collective, a champion of the individual, and a defender of the republic. He is anything but a fascist. Want more from Glenn Beck? Get Glenn's FREE email newsletter with his latest insights, top stories, show prep and more delivered to your inbox.

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