Secret Service director testifies about Trump assassination attempt

Secret Service director testifies about Trump assassination attempt: During more than four hours of irate questioning and louder bipartisan calls for U.S. Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle to resign as a result of security flaws in the July 13 attempt to assassinate former president Donald Trump, members of Congress slammed Cheatle.

House Oversight Executive James Comer (R-Ky.) During the first congressional hearing since the attack on Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, lawmakers urged Cheatle to resign. “Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter that was published after the hearing. Jamie Raskin, a ranking Democrat from Maryland, was one of those lawmakers.

“The Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing in the middle of a presidential election.”

The hearing marked the culmination of a turbulent week in which President Trump survived the first direct attack on a U.S. leader in more than 40 years, Vice President Harris launched her presidential campaign just 100 days before the November elections, and President Biden ended his bid for a second term.

The final stretch of the campaign is uncertain and tense for both parties. However, lawmakers stated that the candidates and their supporters ought to have faith in the organization tasked with preventing political violence in the country’s democracy.

Congress calls for Secret Service boss to resign for ‘failed’ Trump rally security: Raskin said the two players were joined in their “bewilderment and shock” over the dazzling disappointments that prompted the shooting. During the hearing, he lamented the “extraordinary communication gap” between Cheatle and Congress.

While lawmakers from the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability made mockery of Cheatle and accused her of avoiding questions, she maintained her calm demeanor.

She stated in her opening remarks, “This is the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.” I accept full responsibility for our agency’s security breaches.

Cheatle, who was confirmed as chief on Sept. 17, 2022, has said she won’t leave. She is the 27th director of the Secret Service and the second woman to hold that position.

She has worked in the Secret Service for more than 25 years, first as the manager of the Atlanta office and then as the first woman to hold the position of assistant director of the Office of Protective Operations. When Biden was vice president, Cheatle was a member of his security team.

The lawmakers questioned why Trump was allowed to speak about 15 minutes after officers at the Butler fairgrounds saw a suspicious person who was later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman.

Secret Service director testifies about Trump assassination attempt: A thief opened fire with an AR-style rifle from an unlocked roof less than 150 yards from the stage of Trump’s campaign rally, injuring Trump, killing one man in the crowd and seriously wounding two others. A countersniper from the Secret Service shot and killed him on the spot.

Monday, while being repeatedly questioned by Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kan.), According to Cheatle, the Beaver County emergency services unit saw Crooks on the roof and took a picture of him nearly two hours before Trump spoke.

Also confirmed by Cheatle was Crooks’ possession of a range finder, a tool for measuring outdoor distances for shooting, surveying, and photography. However, she stated that carrying a “range finder is not a prohibited item” did not necessarily make him a danger.

LaTurner answered: ” If the same person with the range finder is found on a rooftop, is that still considered threatening or just suspicious?

She stated, “That could still be considered suspicious.”

Cheatle stated that the Secret Service would have “paused the rally had they know there was an actual threat” in an effort to distinguish between suspicious behavior and a direct threat.

Legislators from both parties were concerned about the elite agency’s failure to recognize the threat because they thought the agency’s 60-day internal investigation would take too long to provide answers.

Secret Service director testifies about Trump assassination attempt: Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, stated, told her that he was one of several Democrats calling for Cheatle’s resignation. When a presidential candidate is the target of an assassination attempt, you cannot continue to lead a Secret Service agency.

“It has been 10 days since a death endeavor on a previous leader of the US paying little mind to party,” Ocasio-Cortez told Cheatle. ” There should be replies.”

The FBI’s criminal investigation and other investigations into the attack are in addition to the internal report.

The panel was informed by Cheatle that she does not personally review the security plans for the thousands of events attended by the 36 people who are protected by the agency. She stated that a team of Secret Service personnel conducts those reviews.

Congress calls for Secret Service boss to resign for ‘failed’ Trump rally security: She provided some specifics about the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the shooting. She told lawmakers that Crooks was in possession of explosives, and the FBI is looking into who might have shown him how to make them. She stated that Crooks’ body contained a detonator. She also stated once more that he appeared to have acted alone.

Although he stated that the number of agents assigned to Trump that day was “sufficient,” Cheatle would not specify how many.

Cheatle likewise didn’t say whether the Mystery Administration sent a robot to screen the region. Without going into specifics, she stated that the organization provided “overwatch,” which is the Secret Service’s term for aerial surveillance.

Crooks asked Cheatle how he got his rifle onto the roof. Cheatle refused to answer. Additionally, she did not specify when the area would have been “swept” or examined prior to the rally.

One frustrated Republican legislator, Rep. Pat Fallon (Texas), became increasingly agitated during the hearing. jokingly instructed Cheatle to “return to guarding Doritos.”

Cheatle functioned as a top security official at Pepsi Co. North America, which fabricates the nibble food, starting in 2021 preceding she was confirmed as Mystery Administration chief in September 2022.

When Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) cited a Washington Post report that the Secret Service has repeatedly denied the Trump campaign’s requests for additional security at campaign events, Cheatle became impatient.

According to Cheatle, no specific requests for the Trump rally in Butler were turned down.

When Cheatle refused to say whether Secret Service agents were positioned on the roof used by the attacker, some Republican members began shaking their heads and audibly saying “no.”

Congress calls for Secret Service boss to resign for ‘failed’ Trump rally security: Republicans stated that Cheatle’s silence raised their concerns regarding the persistence of the security flaws discovered at the Pennsylvania rally.

Cheatle indicated that she intends to remain and that her agency has improved candidate security.

She replied, “I think I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time,” when Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) questioned her leadership abilities.

The conference denoted Cheatle’s most memorable time affirming before Congress in almost thirty years with the office.

Raskin stated that the hearing revealed a broader congressional failure to pass gun legislation, despite praising the rare bipartisan unity over the shooting response.

He claimed that on the night of the Trump rally, there was a mass shooting at a nightclub in Alabama that left at least 10 people injured and four dead.

According to Raskin, “It’s true the president, the former president, and the handful of people who receive this Secret Service protection are the only people in America we thought were safe from an AR-15 attack.” It is evident that they are insecure as well.”

According to Raskin, “the whole country is living like this, in fear and terror of assault weapon attacks in movie theaters, churches, synagogues, mosques, supermarkets, and Walmarts…anywhere an audience or the public gathers.” This puts us all at risk, puts our families in danger, and the rest of the world doesn’t live like this.