Lawmaker Says Trump Rally Gunman Had an Escape Plan

The man who tried to kill Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month had a plan to escape, according to the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. On CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul told host Robert Costa that Thomas Crooks "had a detonation device on him and two bombs in the car." McCaul, former chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said Crooks planned to use the explosives to create a diversion, Politico reports.

Crooks' plan "was to assassinate the president, create a diversion by blowing up his vehicle on the other side of the property, and then he could escape," McCaul said. Investigators say the devices found in Crooks' car used a radio-controlled system designed for fireworks shows, the New York Times reports. FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers last week that the "relatively crude" devices were left in the "off" position, meaning Crooks would have been unable to detonate them remotely.

On Face the Nation, McCaul told Costa that he had visited the rooftop that Crooks fired at the former president from. "This individual should never been that close to the president of the United States. It was very, very close. And the fact he even got there in the first place was a failure." McCaul said he had "faith and confidence" in the Secret Service but he is "glad that Director Cheatle did the right thing and resigned, like President Reagan's director of Secret Service did." He added: "Each time you have an attempted assassination, that is a failure." (More Trump rally shooting stories.)