Conservatives are spreading a video of a cow on social media to mock the Secret Service after former President Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt on Saturday.
Questions regarding security lapses have only grown since Trump’s weekend rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire from a rooftop and grazed the former president’s ear.
Although Crooks was photographed by law enforcement and reported as suspicious earlier that day, it wasn’t until he was spotted with a rifle on the roof that chaos broke out.
One police officer is reported to have climbed onto the roof prior to the gunfire erupting, but was forced to jump back down after Crooks pointed his rifle at him. And while there were snipers inside the building below Crooks, no officers had been placed on top of the structure.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle later claimed that no snipers had been placed atop the building due to “security concerns,” citing the slope of the roof. The explanation has been criticized by many, who point to the slanted roof where counter snipers returned fire.
Amidst the conversation, a video of a cow casually strolling on an unrelated roof began to go viral and was used to call into question Cheatle’s claims. The popular right-wing X user known as DC_Draino was one of numerous accounts to share the sloped roof meme.
Dom Lucre, who was famously allowed back on X by Elon Musk after being suspended for sharing child abuse material, likewise used the video to criticize Trump’s security detail.
“DEVELOPING: This cow that was able to be posted on a roof with a slope appears to be more qualified than secret service agents according to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle,” he wrote.
Conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza similarly used the cow to call Cheatle’s remarks into question.
“Let’s ponder the Secret Service director’s stated rationale for leaving the assassin’s firing spot unguarded: The roof was too sloping!” D’Souza said.
“Here is a cow performing the miracle of traversing a ‘sloped roof,’” a user named Native Patriot added. “A feat so Great! That out secret service couldn’t even handle.
Since the shooting, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security has revealed that an investigation is underway to “evaluate the United States Secret Service’s process for securing former President Trump.”
Regardless of the findings, it’s likely that the sloped roof meme will continue to be used to critique the failures from the Secret Service.
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