By The top Democrat on a House committee joined its Republican chairman Monday in urging embattled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign after a brutal hearing on her agency’s failure to prevent the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13.
Cheatle earlier told the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that “we failed” to maintain the agency’s “solemn mission to protect our nation’s leaders” during the shooting at the Republican presidential nominee Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and ranking Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, in a joint letter to Cheatle wrote, “the United States Secret Service under your leadership failed to protect former President Donald Trump from an assassination attempt that took the life of Corey Comperatore and seriously injured at least two other people.”
“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,” Comer and Raskin wrote.
“In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing,” the lawmakers wrote.
“We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people.”
Cheatle, who testified under subpoena, frustrated committee members by refusing to answer key questions about the Secret Service’s security preparations for Trump’s rally in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, its response to local police notifying the Secret Service of a suspicious man at that event, and how the agency handled the aftermath of the shooting by 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks.
Crooks was able to shoot at Trump and rally members from a rooftop of a building about 150 years away from the stage where the Republican nominee was speaking.
Cheatle and other Secret Service have repeatedly said the building was outside of a security perimeter that its agents were responsible for, and that local police were given the task of securing the building complex where Crooks fired from. Cheatle has also said the fact that the roof slopes down was a reason not to position a law-enforcement sniper on it for the event.
“I’m not going to get into specifics of the day,” Cheatle said Monday as she pointed to the ongoing investigations of the shooting.
“There was a plan in place to provide overwatch, and we are still looking into responsibilities.”
Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, blasted Cheatle at one point, saying, “You’re full of s— today!”
“We have asked you repeatedly to answer our questions,” Mace said.
Despite that, Cheatle told the committee, “I think that I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.”
“We must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure an incident like July 13th does not happen again,” said Cheatle.
She said, “The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13th is the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades and I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts.”
Cheatle has refused to resign despite facing blistering criticism over the Secret Service’s failure to secure a building rooftop overlooking the site of Trump’s campaign rally in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, which Crooks used as a sniper position to shoot at the Republican presidential nominee and audience members.
“I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief and a hero, who was killed in this senseless shooting,” Cheatle said. “I would also like to acknowledge those who were injured in Butler, Pennsylvania, David Dutch and James [Copenhaver], and I wish them a speedy recovery.”
Cheatle also said, “As the Director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse.”
“As an agency, we are fully cooperating with the FBI’s investigation, the oversight you have initiated here, and conducting our own internal mission assurance review at my direction. Likewise, we will cooperate with the pending external review and the DHS Office of the Inspector General.”
This is developing news. Check back for updates.
Correction: James Copenhaver was injured in the shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler Township, Pennsylvania. An earlier version misspelled his name.
