A former FBI agent who spent nearly 30 years with the agency raised critical questions about how a potential shooter knew the exact location of former President Donald Trump.
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Bobby Chacon voiced concerns about how the man, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, knew Trump would be near the 5th hole at 1:31 p.m. on his West Palm Beach Golf Course.
Officials said Routh camped outside the golf course for nearly 12 hours with food and a rifle before a Secret Service agent opened fire.
Although no shots were fired by Routh, he was positioned between 300-500 yards away, close enough to have inflicted fatal harm.
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Despite the close call, Chacon said he doesn’t think it was a total failure by the Secret Service.
“I don’t see this as particularly as a failure,” Chacon said. “I think they could have done some things better.”
Chacon said the Secret Service effectively did its job on Sunday by confronting the threat on the outer perimeter of what he called Trump’s security bubble at his golf course.
He said though that there are many lessons to be learned.
“I think drones would have done them a lot of good here because they can extend the range of that bubble,” Chacon said. “Somebody can sit there, and you can have two or three drones up, and you can cover a lot of ground with that. Then if you see something from higher up, the drone can go right down in a way a helicopter can’t. A drone can go under the trees and go right and look at certain things.”
He said he hasn’t lost faith in the Secret Service, saying this incident was not an absolute security failure compared to the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania two months ago.
Chacon said he’s worried about threats made toward Trump from Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism.
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He said Iran can carry out a more sophisticated assassination attempt.
“They have the resources to fund terrorist activities overseas, outside their own borders,” Chacon said. “And certainly, it’s conceivable that they would have better assassins, better equipment, maybe a boat launched, rocket launched at a place where the president might be. That’s why you have to keep his schedule secret. This is a more serious threat than this one-off, rhetorically incited people.”