From the Liveblog of
Monday, July 15, 2024
Ex-envoy Friedman: Attempted assassination of Trump and Oct. 7 both inexcusable security failures
David Friedman, the Trump administration’s ambassador to Israel, says the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump “is our October 7” — a reference to the catastrophic Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel nine months ago — in terms of the inexplicable security failures involved.
In an interview with Channel 12 news, Friedman is asked how it was that the gunman was able to target Trump: “What happened to the Secret Service, that lapse in security?”
Friedman replies: “Well, look, you had your October 7 — which at this point no one’s been able to explain how that could have happened, right? And this is our October 7.”
“It doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever how somebody could crawl up on a roof in plain sight, have a clear sight at the president of the United States, or former president, giving a speech,” Friedman continues. “Snipers on the roof, from what I’m told, were delayed in taking shots. I mean the whole thing is inexplicable.
“But unfortunately, we’re getting used to that in this world — some really colossal failures of security and of intelligence that lead to these kinds of horrific results,” he adds.
Friedman, who notes that he did not see the shooting when it occurred — because, he was “embarrassed to say,” he was fast asleep in Israel (where it was the very early hours of Sunday morning) — says he was “incredibly concerned” when he saw what had happened. “This is a dear friend of mine.”
But, he adds, “When I saw how he jumped up, how he forced the Secret Service to let him up, even while his face was dripping blood, to make sure that everybody knew he was OK, to stand up, that’s the Donald Trump I knew.”
“With all the trauma around, I couldn’t help but smile, because that’s really the guy I knew… His instincts really came through in that event. A lot of people, I would assume, under those circumstances, would want to stay low, they’d want to stay out of the public sight. All he wanted to do was get up, stand up, raise his fist triumphantly that he had survived and he was fine. And that’s who he is.”
Asked how Trump is now, Friedman says, “He’s really OK, he’s even better than OK. He sees, probably, some real divine providence in the fact that he could have lost his life had the bullet been one millimeter in a different direction.”
Friedman adds that he personally is “kind of optimistic about where this will take us — both [Trump] personally and as a country, that it’ll maybe bring us back to a place of greater civility within our discourse.”
If Trump is reelected, says Friedman, “you’ll get the same president Trump as we had from 2017 to 2021,” marked by “strong support for Israel.”
Regarding Trump’s observations on the war, he says, “Most Israelis, I would think, would support a quick, decisive victory by Israel. Now, it hasn’t been quick but it’s certainly moving now towards being decisive. He supports that completely.”
Trump, says Friedman, “thinks the war should end when Israel’s victorious — not before that” and backs a decisive Israeli victory against “these horrific terrorist foes.” Trump, he says, is “100 percent behind Israel.”
Asked about his own potential future role, Friedman says he thinks about it “all the time,” but stresses: “It’s up to him. I’ll be honored to serve the United States in whatever way he thinks is best.”
