PHOENIX — A former presidential advance team member is weighing in on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Frank Thorwald said he worked advance at several Trump rallies in Arizona, but prior to that he worked for President Ronald Reagan's administration.
Thorwald said he planned presidential travel, rallies, and other events down to the very minute.
“In an ideal world, you have a bubble and nobody would be out of that bubble and you could protect somebody, but it’s not an ideal world for those kinds of things," Thorwald said.
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With every move, Thorwald said the White House also prepares for the worst.
"If the president is killed, it’s on you. So, you're always very, very cautious about what you do and how you do it," Thorwald said.
Those emergency plans went into place on Saturday when a gunman shot Trump from a rooftop roughly 148 yards away.
“Somebody messed up," Thorwald said. "I say that because Secret Service is extremely good, they’re one of the best, if not the very best security service in the world.”
Thorwald said long-distance threats are the hardest to protect from, but typically Secret Service will identify every location that has potential for a shooter.
“How the person got up on that building? They shouldn’t have gotten up on that building," Thorwald said.
He said the Secret Service's response after the shooting likely went according to plan, starting with Trump ducking behind the podium.
“It’s designed you can literally throw the principal down behind that to protect them from bullets," Thorwald said.
Again when a Secret Service agent raised his hand over Trump's head to prevent line of sight.
"If a bullet’s going to hit the arm, his arm, it’s going to protect Trump from getting shot again," Thorwald said.
Thorwald said when someone attempted to assassinate President Reagan in 1981, they learned from it.
He said that's likely what will happen here, as well.
“What they’re going to do, are doing right now, is go through all of their security, trying to figure out did we do something wrong, what did we miss, what can we do better next time," Thorwald said.
Thorwald said it takes months to plan security detail for an event like the Republican National Convention, where Trump is headed this week.
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