By Matthew Holloway |
Congressman and former Navy SEAL Sniper Eli Crane (R-AZ) visited the rooftop perch of attempted presidential assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks with his team on Monday and shared footage of his professional assessment. Crane’s perspective carries particular weight given his five combat deployments during his 13-year military career.
Crane wrote, “I’m on the roof of the building in Butler, PA, where shots were fired in an attempt to assassinate President Trump. As a former Navy SEAL sniper, it was clear to me that many security measures were dropped making Pres. Trump extremely vulnerable. Many questions still remain.”
According to Crane’s congressional website, the congressman was a post-9/11 enlistee in the U.S. Navy from Arizona, who worked his way up to the Naval Special Warfare Command, joining SEAL Team 3 based out of Naval Amphibious Base Coronado in California. Three of his wartime deployments were to Iraq. He was a SEAL for nine of his thirteen years in uniform.
The first video at just over a minute long presents Crane’s damning assessment of the tactical realities at the site of the attempted assassination, that directly conflicts with the narrative being presented by Director Kimberly Cheatle of the United States Secret Service.
He explained, “All right guys, I’m up here on the building where the supposed sniper took his shot. It’s not that steep at all. We just had a 70-year-old man back here climb up on the roof easily.”
Cheatle drew wide criticism when she justified the lack of Secret Service presence on the rooftop to ABC News saying, “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.” She added, “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”
Crane noted that, if snipers were posted on a nearby water tower overlooking the building and the entire venue, “This guy wouldn’t have made it 5 feet up this roof. He would’ve been taken out.”
The Congressman also noted second floor windows in an adjacent building where Secret Service were “supposedly in the second floor of this building behind.” He added that it, “makes you wonder why they weren’t able to quickly dispatch the individual.”
In a subsequent post to X, Crane presented the vantage point from the second-floor windows that the Secret Service had access to. He wrote, “This video was taken from one of the windows the Secret Service had access to, overlooking the entire roof. As you can see, they had complete coverage. Makes you wonder how on earth they allowed the shooter to access the roof, let alone crawl up it & fire several shots.”
Crane’s assessment seemed to concur with that of Gene Petrino, a former SWAT commander for Florida’s Plantation Police Department, who questioned in an interview with Fox News why snipers were not stationed at the water tower that “would have had a vantage point of all the roofs,” and called out “the audacity for her to say that there was an issue with the sloped roof when her men were already on a sloped roof.”
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is testifying in front of the House Oversight Committee Monday. During these proceedings Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) has accused Cheatle of perjuring herself and stonewalling members of the Committee, according to Fox News. Crane has a seat on the House Homeland Security Committee and the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability.
“I will say this. It is very frustrating. And I’ve talked to my colleagues, and we’ve said it to your face that you have been up here basically stonewalling our ability to get the answers to the American people. And what I will also say is that every single member of Congress does not feel safe with you in charge. You have heard that. And I think that we are all sitting ducks with you and directing the Secret Service currently,” Luna said.
She then issued a formal request for Cheatle’s resignation: “But more importantly, it sends a message to our adversaries that we are not protected, and we are one of the strongest countries in the world. So, you have essentially made us a less safe country because of it. As a result of that, I’m asking you to formally step down.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
