Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino joins Glenn as a guest to review the latest insane revelations about the security failures at the July 13th Trump rally: “They just let the line of sight threat exist…they basically let him get shot.” Bongino and Glenn review some of the basic questions that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle failed to answer during her congressional hearing: Why didn’t she have a timeline of the day’s events? Why did the failed assassin have a drone, but the Secret Service allegedly didn’t have any aerial surveillance? Did Cheatle communicate with White House officials on messaging about the attack? Will she turn over her cell phones? Bongino also reacts live to the news that Cheatle has resigned.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Dan Bongino, good friend. Welcome to the program. How are you, sir?

DAN: Hey, good to talk to you, Glenn. Doing okay.

GLENN: Dan, I remember when we first met, you were still on presidential detail. And I said that you were standing in the room with these guys, while I was on the air. And they hated me.

And because of their reaction, you started really paying attention, to what was being said in those rooms. And I told you, I'm really concerned about the security, of the president.

Because I was on the outside looking at you, and people like you. And seeing the Secret Service being completely inept from the top. Not necessarily the agents.

It's gotten so bad now, Dan. And I'm not sure that it is -- they're being inept. I'm not sure what the hell is going on.

DAN: Yeah. These problems aren't new. And there's a lot of kind of -- Johnny-come-lately commentary on this, on the left-wing media good news.

But the reality is people like me, were calling attention to this problem over a decade ago.

And, you know, I have the receipts to back it up. You can go look at interviews I gave to the Washingtonian, a book I wrote, called Protecting the President.

All while diagnosing all the problems with the Secret Service. You will read the book. You're going to say, gosh, did he write this ten minutes ago? No, I wrote it ten years ago. And what wound up happening.

You know, a subject you're probably unfortunately familiar with is, the left-wing media, rather than analyzing Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Hannity, and Dan Bongino say, they go on attack mode right away. They just don't like us.

See, I don't feel the same about them. If I hear something from the left-wing media, I can independently vet.

It doesn't mean it's naturally false. Unfortunately, a lot of times, it is. But the irony is they claim to be journalists. They attack me as a conspiracy theorist for telling -- for telling folks on my show in August of 2023, it's Episode 2079, if anyone wants to listen from last year. Where I said that Donald Trump was likely going to be hurt or killed.

I was getting that information from high-ranking Secret Service sources. Who were very troubled by the minimal security posture applied to Donald Trump.

And the repeated requests for enhanced security, that was being rebuffed.

And Daniel Arkin, from NBC wrote a piece. You can still read, because it's embarrassingly still up. Calling me a conspiracy theorist, saying, I was stating this without evidence. Without ever having speaking to me, or asking me what my evidence was. So, you know, if you listen to shows like this and your program.

You know, you're six weeks, six months, six years ahead of the news cycle. You're listening to the liberal media, you're consistently stunned by attempts like this on Donald Trump's life, thinking, what happened?

GLENN: So tell me your gut at this point. And I know I'm asking you to go on limited facts, because they're not releasing everything.
But you have inside connections.

Is your gut -- does your gut tell you, this is just more of the same incompetence, times a thousand? Or is something nefarious going on?

DAN: Well, listen, the ladder, I can't answer. One thing I never do is I never go down road, where I don't know if it ends up off a cliff. Because then you wind up like the left-wing media. Oh, look, there's a pee-pee tape out there. Have you seen it? No. I don't know if it's nefarious.

I can tell you, the level of incompetence leads naturally to the second question: You're not crazy to ask it. But the level of incompetence here is stunning. Because people think in threes and nuggets and pieces of information.

I'm going to give you a couple of chunks of information here, from over ten years of experience. And having worked with three presidents. Two Democrats and a Republican.

Having done hundreds of advances and having actually done four foreign lead advances too. So, you, I know what I'm talking about.

To number one, why was President Trump on the X? We recall the X. Why was he out on the podium at all?

It's a question that nobody can answer. It's also the question in the hearing yesterday.

If you go back and listen to it, the director, Kim Cheatle, a failed human being, who disgracefully, still sitting in a job, putting a nation at risk from incompetence.

It's why she won't answer the time line question. Did you notice how cryptic she was?

She won't answer the time line question, because she gives you a time that is recognized. Then the obvious next question is, well, if you knew there was a threat, up to an hour out, potentially 18 minutes out, depending on who you believe.

Why was President Trump walking on the stage, in the middle of a -- getting scoped out, and range located by a sniper? And she can't answer it.

GLENN: So, Dan, so -- but her answer will seem to be in the coming days, that while yes, but we didn't have communications open with the people that were there.

Those were local.

Don't you have a command center, that --

DAN: Yes. Don't waste your time.

You just said it. Don't even -- I don't care what her answer is. It's called the command post. Glenn, you have zero experience as a Secret Service agent. You're a very talented radio guy.

Even you knew that. You never worked in the Secret Service. You're like, wait. Didn't they have a command center? Here's the answer.

Yes. It's called the CP, the Command Post.

Every single law enforcement entity working that operation had either a representative or a radio in there.

There is absolutely zero chance the Command Post did not get information that they were working to suspicious mail, surveilling the outside of the perimeter with a range finder. There's zero chance.

So when you ask questions like, well, how had he walked off stage? The answer is such incredible gross incompetence. I don't blame people for saying, there's got to be something more here.

I just don't know that. All I'm telling you is that the failure here is so apocalyptic, everyone there on that advanced team should have resigned the next day. The director, the deputy director, all of them.

How they still have jobs is incredible. Let me throw one more thing out at you.

Let's just say all of the director's stupid stories are accurate. They're not. Let's just say they are. The roof was sloped.

It was hot that day. Whatever ridiculous excuse you make.

I've read problems in the past, where we could not secure a line of site problem.

We didn't have enough bodies, whatever. I had a sight with Hillary Clinton. Just didn't have enough bodies to secure a dorm room, looking out at her speech sight at Hofstra University. You know what I did?

I have them go out, get a 5-dollar can of that snow spray, that fake snow.

Why would I do that? Because I sprayed the window. Because I figured, listen, if we can't mitigate this line of sight threat, and this potential sniper, at least we can block the line of sight so they can't see what they're shooting. Sometimes it's the best you can do.

They didn't even do that. They didn't even do that. They just let the line of site threat exist.

And the counter surveillance, which is a piece of paperwork, the countersurveillance team looks at, that will show that they knew that that was a vulnerability. And yet they did nothing about it. They basically let him get shot.

GLENN: They haven't released that, though, have they? That document?

DAN: No. They will claim it's classified. It's not. And here's another two pieces of paperwork. There's a survey, called the CS survey. The Countersniper Survey. That Countersniper Survey will point out every single elevated high point in the area.

That will be on there, and you will see something. I will break this later on my show. I'm not trying to be cryptic or funny about it on your show. I'm just working the angle right now, and I want to be sure I'm correct. But that specific high point, there's a major, major fiasco that happened there.

There was a communication lapse, that is totally unforgivable. But the countersurveillance and countersniper survey will show that that high point was a vulnerability. And then they will have to answer questions like, when that wasn't posted, when he was on stage.

And allowed that person to get up there. Because there was no post there or nothing. Why didn't you guys follow up?

The Secret Service is ultimately responsible. Why didn't the sight agents just notice that one of the posts they had wasn't there?

I mean, this is an unforgivable, unfortunate series of events, that basically caused this. There's no other explanation.

GLENN: So I had Eli Crane on. The Congressman from Arizona, that was up on the roof.
And posted a video, up at -- yesterday.

And he was standing in the barn, if you will. Right behind, where the shooter was.

And he's on the second floor.

Inside, air-conditioning. In an office.

And it has a window, that looks right out on that roof!

If it was too hot or dangerous, why were they on the first floor, and not on the second floor, looking at the roof!


DAN: Glenn, again, the incompetence here. These are hard interviews for me to give because of the questions you're asking. Again, as a guy with no Secret Service experience at all -- my wife asked me the same questions.

She's a database developer.

They're not explainable. Other than absolute, abject ignorance and stupidity. Whoever gave the advance that day. I don't know how they still have a job.

I really don't, and here's another thing: That -- here's the third question. I brought up the line of site. I brought up the paperwork.

There's another question that needs to be asked.

How did you not deploy -- we have an aerial surveillance branch in the Secret Service.

Why was the aerial surveillance, a drone, a helicopter, a -- an infrared -- a thermal. Why were these -- why were these simple tools we use over and over, not employed that day?

You would have seen the guy on the roof, the second he got up there.

You know, Kim Cheatle, the failed director, said yesterday at the beginning of the hearings, you go back and listen: We employ a 360-degree security coverage. Well, 360, is a three-dimensional sphere.
That means above and below. Well, where the hell was the above coverage?

There was nothing above. We didn't have a drone. Glenn, go to Amazon right now. Get a drone for 40 bucks. We couldn't send a drone up in the air?

You have a 6 trillion-dollar federal budget. What the hell is the federal government good for? Why was there no drones? The answer is, again, absolute stupidity.

And how these people have not been fired or resigned, is really deeply disturbing at this point.
The government has no accountability whatsoever.

GLENN: Dan, when I heard the congressman yesterday.

DAN: Wait. Glenn, hold on.

I'm hearing breaking news, that the director may be leaving very soon. So I'm just getting this now. So we may --

GLENN: Oh, good. Good.

DAN: I predicted this last night. We'll see what happens.

Yeah, she has no political support. But the Biden/Harris team doesn't want the headache. The Democrats have bailed on her. This woman needs to go. She's a disgrace. I'm getting this from a Secret Service friend now. Said, and she's out.

So whether he's got something we're breaking on your show or not, but this guy has been a reliable source for me.

GLENN: Tell me, when I heard the congressman yesterday say that, have you used any kind of encrypted apps to communicate with anyone.

I was shocked to hear her say yes.

But when -- when -- I don't know if congressman -- or, you know, are smart enough to think this way.

But I know I really try not to ask a question, especially, if I'm -- if I am in a situation, where I'm trying to prove somebody wrong.

I make sure I kind of know the answer to the question. Before I ask it.

That way, when we come back to it later. I've got her on the record.

What the hell is -- on her private phone. That's against the law.

DAN: Well, because we've been friends for a long time. I'm not going to spin your wheels.

There are two people on this phone call.

And one of them may have contributed to the asking of that question. So you could probably figure out by the fact that -- so, yeah.

They're -- Cheatle has no friends, anymore in the Secret Service.

They are horrified by her leadership. Let's just say a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend, may have sent to a friend, exactly that question. Who passed to a friend of a friend of a friend of another friend. And it made it into the hearings. That's what --

GLENN: What was the friend of a friend of a friend saying that we should get that on the record for?

DAN: Because the communications may -- may have involved communications with significant White House officials on messaging. And it may have involved.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

DAN: Yes. So we'll -- we'll see what comes out in the wash. Now, keep in mind.

GLENN: Did it maybe involve this -- this event?

DAN: Oh. Oh, yeah. That's a distinct possibility.

I mean, we will have to find out. I don't know the exact content. Because I don't have her phone.

But her agreeing to turn over her personal phone for forensic analysis to Lauren Boulder, who asked all the right questions, by the way. They should take her up on that offer. I can almost guarantee her, she will bail and lawyer up, if she's asked to turn her personal phone over.

Or she's probably deleting messages right now.

GLENN: Unbelievable.

Dan, as always. Great to talk to you.

And I'm so happy for your success.

Nobody deserves it more than you, Dan.

DAN: You're a food friend and a mentor. So I love you too, brother. Thanks, man. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.