Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Monday that her agency failed in its mission to protect former U.S. president Donald Trump, as lawmakers of both major political parties demanded during a highly contentious congressional hearing that she resign over security failures that allowed a gunman to scale a roof and open fire at a campaign rally.
Cheatle was berated for hours by Republicans and Democrats, repeatedly angering lawmakers by evading questions about the investigation in her first congressional hearing over the July 13 assassination attempt. Cheatle called the attempt on Trump鈥檚 life the Secret Service鈥檚 鈥渕ost significant operational failure鈥 in decades, and vowed to 鈥渕ove heaven and earth鈥 to get to the bottom of what went wrong and make sure there鈥檚 no repeat of it.
鈥淭he Secret Service鈥檚 solemn mission is to protect our nation鈥檚 leaders. On July 13th, we failed,鈥 she told lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting at the Butler, Pa., rally. She also revealed that the roof from which Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally. Cheatle said she apologized to Trump in a phone call after the assassination attempt.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., questions U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle as she testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, July 22, 2024. (John McDonnell/AP Photo)
Yet Cheatle remained defiant that she was the 鈥渞ight person鈥 to lead the Secret Service, even as she said she takes full responsibility for the security lapses. When Republican Rep. Nancy Mace suggested Cheatle begin drafting her resignation letter from the hearing room, Cheatle responded, 鈥淣o, thank you.鈥
In a rare moment of unity for the often divided committee, the Republican chairman, Rep. James Comer, and its top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin, issued a letter calling on Cheatle to step down.
The White House didn鈥檛 immediately comment on whether U.S. President Joe Biden still has confidence in Cheatle after her testimony.
Democrats and Republicans were united in their exasperation as Cheatle said she didn't know or couldn't answer numerous questions more than a week after the shooting, which left one spectator dead. At one point, Mace used profanity as she accused Cheatle of lying and dodging questions, prompting calls for lawmakers to show 鈥渄ecorum.鈥
Lawmakers pressed Cheatle on how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded, and why Trump was allowed to take the stage after local law enforcement had identified Crooks as suspicious.
"It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States. Regardless of party, there need to be answers,鈥 said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York.
Cheatle acknowledged that Crooks had been seen by local law enforcement before the shooting with a rangefinder, a small device resembling binoculars that hunters use to measure distance from a target. She said the Secret Service would never have taken Trump onto the stage if it had known there was an 鈥渁ctual threat." Local law enforcement took a photo of Crooks and shared it after seeing him acting suspiciously, but he wasn鈥檛 deemed to be a 鈥渢hreat鈥 until seconds before he opened fire, she said.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents as he is helped off the stage at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
鈥淎n individual with a backpack is not a threat,鈥 Cheatle said. 鈥淎n individual with a range finder is not a threat.鈥
Cheatle said local enforcement officers were inside the building from which Crooks fired. But when asked why there were no agents on the roof or if the Secret Service used drones to monitor the area, Cheatle said she is still waiting for the investigation to play out, prompting groans and outbursts from members on the committee.
鈥淒irector Cheatle, because Donald Trump is alive, and thank God he is, you look incompetent," said Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio. 鈥淚f he were killed you would look culpable.鈥
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., noted that the Secret Service director who presided over the agency when there was an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan later stepped down.
鈥淭he one thing we have to have in this country are agencies that transcend politics and have the confidence of independents, Democrats, Republicans, progressives and conservatives,鈥 Khanna said, adding that the Secret Service was no longer one of those agencies.
Trump was wounded in the ear, a former Pennsylvania fire chief was killed and two other attendees were injured after Crooks climbed atop the roof of a nearby building and opened fire with an AR-style rifle shortly after Trump started speaking at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Cheatle said the agency hopes to have its internal investigation completed in 60 days. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has separately appointed a bipartisan, independent panel to review the assassination attempt, while the department鈥檚 inspector general has opened three investigations.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan delegation of about a dozen members of the House Committee on Homeland Security toured the shooting site Monday. The lawmakers said they were the first group outside law enforcement to climb onto the roof where the shooter positioned himself.
A view of the site of the July 13, Trump campaign rally on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show, which was visited by members of the House Committee on Homeland Security on Monday, July 22, 2024, in Butler, Pa.
Authorities have been hunting for clues into what motivated Crooks but have not found any ideological bent that could help explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone found photos of Trump, Biden and other senior government officials and found that he had looked up the dates for the Democratic National Conventional as well as Trump鈥檚 appearances. He also searched for information about major depressive order.
The attack on Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Reagan was shot in 1981. It was the latest in a series of security lapses by the agency that has drawn investigations and public scrutiny over the years.
Cheatle took over two years ago as head of the Secret Service's 7,800 special agents, uniformed officers and other staffers whose main purpose is protecting presidents, vice presidents, their families, former presidents and others. In announcing her appointment, Biden said Cheatle had served on his vice presidential detail and called her a 鈥渄istinguished law enforcement professional with exceptional leadership skills鈥 who had his 鈥渃omplete trust.鈥
Cheatle took the reins from James M. Murray as multiple congressional committees and an internal watchdog investigated missing text messages from when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Secret Service says they were purged during a technology transition.
Witnesses later saw him climbing up the side of a squat manufacturing building that was within 135 metres (157 yards) of the stage. He then set up his rifle and lay on the rooftop, a detonator in his pocket to set off crude explosive devices that were stashed in his car parked nearby.
The attack on Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Reagan was shot in 1981. It was the latest in a series of security lapses by the agency that has drawn investigations and public scrutiny over the years.
Authorities have been hunting for clues into what motivated Crooks but have not found any ideological bent that could help explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone found photos of Trump, Biden and other senior government officials and found that he had looked up the dates for the Democratic National Conventional as well as Trump鈥檚 appearances. He also searched for information about major depressive order.
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