Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle faced growing, bipartisan calls for her resignation during a brutal hearing Monday into the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
Lawmakers from both parties on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee — which is known for its contentious hearings and partisan rhetoric — expressed exasperation, frustration and sometimes disbelief at Cheatle’s testimony.
“This committee is not known for its model of bipartisanship,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the panel’s chairman. “We come together unanimously in our disappointment at your lack of answers.”
Cheatle, who has been in the role for just under two years, admitted that the assassination attempt was “the Secret Service’s most significant operational failure in decades.”
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed,” she said in her opening speech. “As director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security failures by our agency.”
But her resistance to providing details about the shooting and the Secret Service’s actions — she said at one point, “I have a timeline that has no details” — will raise new questions about how long she will remain in office.
Several Democrats on Monday joined calls for her to resign, including Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the panel’s top Democrat.
“I don’t want to add anything to the director’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, but I’m going to join the president in calling for the director’s resignation just because I think this relationship is irretrievable at this point,” Raskin said.
“And I think the director lost the trust of Congress at a very urgent and delicate moment in the country’s history. And we need to move beyond that very quickly.”
Shortly after the hearing concluded, Comer and Raskin wrote a joint letter — another rarity — demanding Cheatle’s resignation.
“Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding this stunning operational failure and failed to assure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its errors and systemic failures. In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing,” they wrote.
Cheatle has repeatedly refused to go into detail about the investigation into how 20-year-old suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to gain access and open fire from a nearby rooftop shortly after Trump began speaking at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. the former president was injured, a rally participant was killed and two others were seriously injured.
Republicans were sometimes bombastic in expressing their displeasure with Cheatle. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said she was “full of s‑‑‑.” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) asked Cheatle if she had Alzheimer’s disease or dementia because she couldn’t remember all the details.
At one point, Cheatle’s response about not having a specific timeline of events for the hearing drew exasperated laughter from lawmakers.
“This is shocking. This is absolutely unacceptable. It means you are a failure at your job,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who was questioning Cheatle.
Democrats also expressed irritation with Cheatle’s responses.
“Can you explain why you are answering so many fewer questions here than you are to the media?” Rep. Dan Goldman (DN.Y.) asked at one point.
“You’re not making this easy for us,” Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) said in another.
Cheatle explained that her apparent reticence was due to her not wanting to provide incorrect information, citing multiple ongoing investigations at the Department of Justice, various inspector general offices, Congress, and internally.
Some of his previous comments to the press have provoked backlash. Cheatle, for example, told ABC News that Secret Service agents were not stationed on the “slanted roof” that the shooter accessed due to security concerns.
Cheatle at the hearing said she “should have been clearer” in that interview and that “there was a plan in place to provide surveillance,” but the agency is still reviewing how responsibilities were assigned.
At one point, a frustrated Rep. Russell Fry (RS.C.) came up with a long list of all the questions that Cheatle had been unable to answer, including the number of local agents and police who were at the rally, whether requests for additional security had been denied , whether law enforcement officers were able to interact with the alleged killer before the shooting, how the shooter got to the roof, how the rifle got to the roof, how many shots he fired in total, or whether shell casings were recovered.
“You can’t tell us anything about his cell phone. You can’t tell us whether the rally should be postponed given the information you were receiving. You can’t tell us if the [shooter’s] car had a bomb. You can’t even tell us why. And the American people are incredibly suspicious because it took nine days to extract a scintilla of evidence from you,” Fry said.
Still, there have been several new revelations about Trump’s assassination attempt, including that the Secret Service was tipped off about a “suspicious person” at the rally two to five times before the shooting, and the agency considered the shooter a threat just “seconds later.” ”. ” before opening fire.
Cheatle also revealed that the roof from which the shooter fired was identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally.
But those details raised more questions from lawmakers, frustrated that the former president was still able to take the stage even as the Secret Service was evaluating the notices about Crooks.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) played a video showing bystanders pointing out thugs, while Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Florida) went over reported warnings about the shooter, highlighting at least five times law enforcement sounded the alarm about your presence.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) called it “the worst thing ever, the whole breakdown in all this communication” at the rally.
The hearing appeared to unite both sides of the aisle in what has been an especially charged and partisan political atmosphere, with Raskin calling that aspect of the proceedings “exceptionally encouraging.”
“I…did not see any daylight among members of both parties today at the hearing in terms of our bewilderment and outrage over the shocking operational failures that led to the disaster and near-catastrophe on July 13, 2024,” Raskin said in his final observations. “What is depressing is the extraordinary communication gap between the director of the Secret Service and Congress.”
Rebecca Beitsch contributed.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
