The Daily Signal - Where Security Went Wrong: Sheriff Responds to Assassination Attempt on Trump

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

It makes “absolutely no sense” that the roof of the building from which the gunman fired was not secured by the Secret Service, Dodge County, Wisconsin, Sheriff Dale Schmidt told The Daily Signal in an interview discussing the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.  Following the attempt on Trump’s life during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle sat down for an interview with ABC News and said there were safety concerns with regard to stationing agents on the roof the shooter used because it was “a sloped roof.” But Schmidt points out that the countersnipers that were on a roof behind the president were also on a sloped roof.  “When you look at a location from a security standpoint, you're going to be standing where that dignitary is ahead of time and saying, ‘Where are the potential vulnerabilities?’” Schmidt said. “And I can tell you if I was on that roof, I could have made that shot. It is not a difficult shot to make.”   Schmidt sat down with The Daily Signal at the Republican National Convention last week in Milwaukee, to discuss the security failures at the Trump campaign rally just days earlier. He also explains why the crisis on America’s southern border has become such a threat to sheriffs across America. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, July 23rd. I'm Virginia Allen. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheetle testified before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, and during that hearing, she was asked why agents did not secure the roof that the shooter targeted Trump from, and specifically Texas Republican Congressman Pat Fallon was very critical of Cheatel's comments that she had made to ABC News. Cheeto told ABC News that agents were not all. that roof that the shooter used because it was a sloped roof. But Fallon pointed out during the hearing that the roof that the counter snipers were on behind Trump was also a sloped roof. That's an observation that was also made by Dodge County Wisconsin Sheriff Dale Schmidt.

I had the opportunity recently at the Republican National Convention to sit down with Sheriff Schmidt and talk about what the security failures were at that rally in Pennsylvania that ultimately resulted in assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump's life. Well, according to Schmidt, he said it makes absolutely no sense why that roof was not secured. Stay tuned for my conversation with Sheriff Smith discussing that assassination attempt and also why sheriffs are so concerned about the ongoing crisis on America's southern border. Before we get to that conversation at the RNC, I want to take a minute to tell you about another great podcast out of the Daily Signal. It's called Problematic Women.

Because conservative women are problematic women. Why? Because we don't adhere to the agenda of the radical left. And every Thursday morning on the problematic women podcast, Kristen, I, Camer, Lauren Evans, and me, Virginia Allen, are joined by other conservative women to break down some of the really big issues that you care about. Whether you're interested in hot takes on conservative news or pop culture, we have you covered. This past week, because we were at the Republican National Convention, We had a full crew join the show and give you the highlights of the week. And this coming week, we're also going to be bringing you a brief interview with a very problematic woman that I had the chance to meet at the RNC. So be sure to follow Problematic Women wherever you like to get your podcasts. We're across all podcast platforms and hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on new shows. All right, let's go ahead and get to my conversation now with Sherr Schmidt. Thank you, Sheriff Schmidt. I really appreciate you taking the time to be here.

We are just a stone's throw away from where you live. You are born and raised here in the great state, not too far away from the convention here taking place in Milwaukee. How many, you're also a member of the National Sheriffs Association. How many sheriffs are a part of that association? Well, that's a good question. I would say most of the sheriffs in the country. Really? Yes.

I'm not familiar with how many there actually are. I'm more familiar with our Badger State Sheriff's Association of all 72 counties here represented there and the president of that association. But also a member of the national sheriffs. And in represent today this week, I'm really representing all of those sheriffs that are members across the country. That is excellent. And so important, we've seen such a show of law enforcement here at the Republican National Convention. And just really, really thankful for that protection, especially given the events of Saturday. I think Americans really want answers about what.

happened during that assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump on Saturday. How does that work when Secret Service is coming into an area and they're sweeping the area? How involved are sheriffs usually with coordinating that security effort? Well, it's very similar to how the RNC is coordinated. It is a collaborative effort between law enforcement entities. Obviously, the Secret Service is ultimately responsible for protecting the president or the former president or any of the other dignitaries. And it's very important for them to do so,

and it's their number one priority. So they're really the lead agency in the protection, but we work together in ensuring that the various escorts are done well, that when there is an event at a location, that that area is cordoned off, and there's appropriate security measures in place, and certainly something that the Secret Service needs to take a look at after what happened in Pennsylvania.

And certainly I have questions as well. Rumors are that there might be a visit to my county in the near future. So I've been paying particularly close attention to this. What do I need to do to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks? Yeah. From what we know, there was local law enforcement involved, of course. They were on the ground on Saturday. And one of the things that we've heard from the Secret Service for the reason why Secret Service weren't

on the roof that that shooter was, that shot from, is because the roof was sloped. It seemed like a really interesting explanation to be given. What are your thoughts on that of choosing, okay, we're going to secure a building from the inside, but not on the roof, even though from the roof, you can see the stage where Trump is going to be speaking because it's a sloped roof?

That makes absolutely zero sense to me at all. If you take a look at where the counter-sniperes were, and you could see them behind former president, in Trump. They were on a sloped roof. It doesn't make any sense to me why you would say because it's a sloped roof, you're not going to have somebody up there. When you look at a location from a security standpoint, you're going to be standing where that dignitary is ahead of time and saying, where are the potential vulnerabilities? And I can tell you, if I was on that roof, I could have made that shot. It is not a difficult shot to make. You need to be on that roof. Somebody needs to be

on that roof. And why somebody wasn't, I can't understand that. I'm sure they're looking into those. I'm sure they'll make adjustments in the future. But if I'm the sheriff in that county, I'm standing there and saying, no, somebody needs to be on top of that rooftop. That is one of the most vulnerable locations. Especially

when after what we're hearing is he came in with a scope. He was hanging onto a scope, a spotting scope. Why you're not having a conversation with that individual at that point and saying why do you have that? What is your intent with that? having just a basic investigation as to what are you bringing that in or saying no you're not going to bring that in the first place. That doesn't make any sense.

Why would you bring a spotting scope into an event like that? It really does ask a lot and pose a lot of questions for me. And I certainly would do things differently. Do you think that the failure more so falls on the Secret Service, local law enforcement is a combination of both? Who does the buck stop with here? The protection of dignitaries in this sense falls to the same. Secret Service. The local law enforcement certainly are there providing a resource. But from what I understand is there was communication back to the Secret Service. I don't have all the facts,

so I'm only hypothesizing. But at the end of the day, that Secret Service needs to make sure there's additional resources if something isn't well covered. If I'm the Secret Service and I know there's a position that is not covered, Donald Trump does not take that stage until such time is that is covered. I mean, and I don't know if it's a lack of resources. If they didn't have enough federal resources allocated, I don't know if that was the issue, maybe. But if I'm in the situation, if I'm the sheriff there,

I'm telling the Secret Service, do we have everything covered? And if not, we will find somebody to cover that. That's the biggest question right now, and the question that I think the nation wants to know. Sheriff, if it had just been other sheriffs on the ground there, protecting Trump, let's say there is a group of 50, 100, sheriffs and they, for some reason, Secret Service couldn't be there and it was just sheriffs that were assigned to protect the president during that rally in Pennsylvania. Would that

assassination attempts have happened? If it's proper planning, it doesn't matter who the law enforcement is. I don't want to pit any law enforcement agency against another because we are all partners together. And I think the work that the Secret Service does is fantastic. I think there was a failure somewhere in planning. And it doesn't matter if it's a Secret Service, the FBI, a little police department, a local sheriff that's doing this, it comes down to who put that plan together, was the plan executed as it was laid out? That's where we need to focus our energy on it. It's not necessarily the head of the agency. I know some people are calling for the head to step down, and I don't have any knowledge if there is any direct correlation there. Maybe it's a resourcing.

Maybe that individual, maybe the head of the Secret Service didn't provide proper allocation. If that's the case, then maybe the head of secret service does need to step down. But really it falls back to who did the plan. Was that plan executed as it was laid out? Those are the questions that we need to ask. And not make this about politics. We make this about the plan itself and was it executed? Critical.

I want to shift gears here for a moment and talk about another issue that is a high priority for sheriffs across the country. And that is the border crisis and what's happening at our southern border. Over the past several years, I've seen a lot of conversations. among sheriffs on this issue. Why is what's happening at the southern border such a focus for sheriffs, whether those are sheriffs that are on the border or not?

I have people in Wisconsin right here in Wisconsin who are dying because of what's going on in the border. I have hundreds of people dying in Wisconsin because of what's going on in the border. It's not just people coming across the border and coming in and committing homicides and sexual assault. Those things are happening. We've seen that in the national media.

But fentanyl is coming across that border like you would not believe. And there is no way for me in Wisconsin to put up a wall around Wisconsin or a wall up around my county, Dodge County, and saying we're going to keep the fentanyl out. I have people asking me, Sheriff, what are you doing to make sure we don't have overdose deaths occurring in your county? I can only do so much. It is a nonstop stream coming across that border of fentanyl. We have cartel members in every single county,

in every single state in the United States of America. in our county seat, Juneau, it's a population of about 3,000 people. This last year, we arrested an individual who was a Mexican drug cartel member here pushing fentanyl, pushing methamphetamine. Those things are coming freely across the border right now. It's not just homicide. It's not just sexual assault. It's not just labor trafficking. It is this poison coming into our country.

And our families are being ripped apart because we have this porous border on the southern border. Isn't it interesting that you need a passport to come in from Canada, but you don't need one to come from Mexico? Isn't that an interesting question? And all of the crap that comes across the border as a result. We need to secure that border. That's why sheriffs are so upset. It isn't just homicide, sexual assault, all those other crimes. It is homicide because of all the fentanyl coming across.

And all these drug dealers pushing it up in our states, even here in Wisconsin. Have you sat with any of those families that have lost loved ones to fentanyl poisoning in your community? I've had conversations with a lot of people who have lost loved ones. It started with heroin 10, 15 years ago. We saw a lot of heroin overdose, but it has transition. It isn't heroin use. We have fentanyl that is introduced into not just heroin. We have fentanyl that's introduced in methamphetamine and cocaine in marijuana.

and I have met with families. In fact, I've been there and I have used the drug Narcan or the antidote Narcan and saved individuals who have gone into overdose. I was telling a story this morning with some individuals from the Nebraska delegation about a family of four young children who called because their mom had overdosed on the floor of their home. And they're my children's age, eight, ten years old. There's one that's a toddler, one I think was 12 years old. and their mom had overdosed on the floor.

I was able to use that Narcan to bring her back. And had I not been there to do that, that individual would have died and left those four children without a mother. That is happening every single day. Thankfully, we have the ability to help some of these families. But there's a lot more that are dying. About 30-ish a year in my county.

Here in Milwaukee County, you're looking at 200, 250 or more a year that are dying from these drug overdoses, directly linked to the Mexican drug cartel. Will things change if Trump is elected and has the opportunity to be our 47th president? I can tell you that when he was president the last time, we saw significant progress. We saw a border wall that was being built. We saw a lot of conversation about people not wanting to come to the United States

or not being able to get into the United States. And we saw positive changes. All of the sheriffs. I was with a group of 180 sheriffs that met President Trump on the South Lawn, and we thanked him for his work, and we saw positive progress. Were we there yet? No. There was a lot more work to be done. But then the very first week when he was no longer in office, President Biden comes in, ceases the operation of building the wall, and we see more and more people coming across that border each and every day, bringing these poisons into our country.

And it has been a nonstop, just flood of people that want to come in. And I know there's a lot of people that want to come in for a new opportunity, but there's a lot of people wanting to do harm to our country as a result. And so I believe if President Trump gets back in, there is going to be a complete 180 getting us back to the direction we were going when he was president last time. Are there any additional policies that you hope he puts in place? I mean, he said he'll put remain in Mexico back in place, start construction again on the border wall, and really those policies that he had before he wants to bring those back.

but are there additional things that you think he could consider doing in relation to making the border even more secure and specifically preventing that fentanyl from flowing into the country? Well, I think, I don't know if it's necessarily a policy, but bringing back support of law enforcement. That has been a, it just had been a disaster for us for the last three and a half years of since we had the protests that happened across the country and Democrats calling for the defunding of police. Well, we saw how good that happened in Minneapolis. They're regretting making those moves in Minneapolis and defunding law enforcement. We had it present who actually supported us, who openly came out and spoke with us and shook our hands and asked,

what do you need to be better? And propped us up, and these are really good people. We don't have that with the current administration. We don't have that with the current administration here on our local level with our governor in the state of Wisconsin. We don't have people who are supporting law enforcement. And when they come out and they tell us that they actually do support law enforcement, that's an empty, empty promise or empty statements. We know they don't support us. If they supported us, they would communicate with us.

President Trump communicated with us regularly. He showed up at our national sheriff's conventions. He showed up when we needed him there. He calls when a law enforcement officer loses their life. We don't see that from the Democrats. We don't see that from President Biden. We don't see that from our local Democrats here in the state. And that, I think, in and of itself, is huge in helping us to keep our community safe.

Dodge County Sheriff, appreciate your time. Sheriff for joining us today. Thank you so much for your insight on these issues. We've covered a lot of ground. Appreciate your time. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Well, with that, that's going to do it for today's episode.

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