US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle faced sharp criticism on Monday during a tense congressional hearing, as lawmakers from both parties expressed frustration over her cautious responses and apparent evasions regarding the recent security breach involving former President Donald Trump.
Chairing the House Oversight Committee, both the top Republican and Democrat posed pivotal questions to Cheatle that remain unanswered:
– Were any Secret Service agents positioned on the roof during the incident involving Thomas Crooks?
– Did Crooks utilize a drone before the rally commenced?
– Why was Crooks not intercepted upon being spotted with a rifle on the roof?
In response to these inquiries and others, Cheatle opted to sidestep direct answers, citing the ongoing investigation.
“We are just nine days out from this incident, and there’s still an ongoing investigation,” she reiterated throughout the session, refraining from delving into specifics of the incident.
Cheatle did disclose some new details:
She acknowledged speaking with the counter-sniper involved in neutralizing Crooks and confirmed that the Secret Service did not deny any security requests from Trump’s campaign for the Butler, Pennsylvania rally where the attack occurred.
Congressional reactions varied widely. Rep. James Comer, the GOP committee chair, emphasized the need for confidence in the FBI’s handling of the investigation, reflecting skepticism among some members about the bureau’s leadership.
In a heated exchange, Rep. Jim Jordan, a staunch Trump ally, accused Cheatle of withholding crucial information. “It looks like you won’t answer some pretty basic questions,” Jordan remarked, highlighting the contentious nature of the proceedings.
Agency failed in its mission to protect Trump: Cheatle
Cheatle said on Monday that her agency failed in its mission to protect former President Donald Trump during a highly contentious congressional hearing with lawmakers of both major political parties demanding she resign over security failures that allowed a gunman to scale a roof and open fire at a campaign rally.
In her first congressional hearing over the July 13 assassination attempt, Cheatle repeatedly angered lawmakers by evading questions, citing ongoing investigations. She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.
Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person “between two and five times” before the shooting. And Cheatle said that the roof from which the shooter fired had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally.
Yet, Cheatle gave no indication she intends to resign even as she said she takes “full responsibility” for any security lapses at the Pennsylvania rally. Cheatle vowed to “move heaven and earth” to ensure that nothing like it ever happens again.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” Cheatle said.
Lawmakers peppered Cheatle with questions about how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded and about why Trump was allowed to take the stage after local law enforcement had identified Thomas Matthew Crooks as suspicious.
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 have paused the rally if agents had been told there was an “actual threat”, but she said there’s a difference between someone identified as suspicious and someone identified as a true threat.
Asked about why there were no agents on the roof where the shooter was located 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.
“Director Cheatle, because Donald Trump is alive, and thank God he is, you look incompetent,” said Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio. “If he were killed you would look culpable.” Cheatle, who has spent nearly three decades at the agency, remained defiant that she was the “right person” to lead the Secret Service despite the failures. 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.
“The 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,” Khanna said, adding that the Secret Service was no longer one of those agencies.
Trump was wounded in the ear, one rally attendee 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.
The Secret Service has acknowledged it denied some requests by Trump’s campaign for increased security at his events in the years before the assassination attempt. But Cheatle said that there were “no assets denied” for the rally.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has called what happened a “failure” while several lawmakers have called on Cheatle to resign or for President Joe Biden to fire her. The Secret Service has said Cheatle does not intend to step down. So far, she retains the support of Biden, a Democrat, and Mayorkas.
Trump assassination bid
Before the shooting, local law enforcement had noticed Crooks pacing around the edges of the rally, peering into the lens of a rangefinder toward the rooftops behind the stage where the president later stood, officials have told The Associated Press. An image of Crooks was circulated by officers stationed outside the security perimeter.
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’s appearances. He also searched for information about major depressive order.
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