Former Secret Service agent questions why Trump was allowed on stage amid threat concerns: 'Why not delay?'

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A retired U.S. Secret Service agent questioned why former President Trump was cleared to take the stage at Saturday's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, despite a "person of interest" being identified beforehand.

"Why the rush? Why push him on stage? Why not delay?" questioned Mike Matranga on "America's Newsroom" Thursday.

"It would have taken nothing to take a tactical pause, assess the situation, locate him, and potentially prevent what we haven't seen in 43 years."

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Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was perceived by the Secret Service as a "person of interest" after law enforcement saw him acting suspiciously and determined he had a golf range finder, according to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Crooks was only identified as a threat when he "retrieved the weapon" and climbed onto the roof of a building just prior to the shooting, according to Guglielmi, who added that a threat requires, "a different protocol and a different course of action than a person of interest."

Soon after that, Butler Township police officers confronted Crooks on the roof, and he pointed his weapon at one of them, who then dropped off the roof. Crooks then fired on Trump and was taken out by a Secret Service counter sniper.

Matranga called the situation a "catastrophic failure."

"Fail