Well before 8 a.m. Monday, law enforcement officials were gathered on the stage inside the Middletown High School auditorium, discussing preparations for the event.
The police presence outside the school building was significant, including armed officers in tactical gear, officers from Middletown and West Chester Township parked outside of the school, and large military-style response vehicles on the scene.
Officers with trained dogs were sweeping the outside of the school, and armed security personnel were on the roof of the high school’s performing arts center.
Traffic started smoothly
At around 10 a.m., traffic from I-75 was flowing smoothly from Exit 36 onto Franklin Lebanon Road and toward the Middletown High School area.
Police vehicles with lights flashing were stationed at various points along the roads immediately surrounding the school’s campus.
By 11 a.m., a line of attendees spanned across the front of the high school, along Forest Hills Drive to the intersection with North Breiel Boulevard. Some attendees were parking at Miami University Middletown and walking across the street to the high school.
Secret Service director: ‘We failed’
At the same time that U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies were setting up in Middletown, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was testifying before a Congressional committee about the Secret Service’s handling of the assassination attempt against Trump.
The House Oversight Committee heard Cheatle’s first appearance before lawmakers since the July 13 Pennsylvania rally shooting that left one spectator dead. Trump was wounded in the ear and two other attendees were injured after Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed atop the roof of a nearby building and opened fire.
Cheatle told lawmakers Monday during the hearing: “On July 13, we failed.”
Cheatle says she takes full responsibility for the agency’s missteps related to the attack at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally earlier this month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.