Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle faced bipartisan criticism on Monday for her agency’s failure to safeguard former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally. Lawmakers demanded her resignation due to security lapses that enabled a gunman to shoot at the event.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” Cheatle said during a congressional hearing. “I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency. We are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations… I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again.”
Cheatle’s initial testimony frustrated lawmakers as she dodged questions by referring to ongoing investigations. She labeled the incident as the Secret Service’s biggest operational blunder in years.
Cheatle explained that the Secret Service’s advancement process involves coordinated planning with local law enforcement and the protectee’s team. She acknowledged that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman, had been spotted by local police before the shooting, using a rangefinder to gauge distance from a target. Authorities observed Crooks walking near the rally, looking through a rangefinder at the rooftops behind the stage where Trump eventually appeared.
Despite this, the Secret Service did not perceive Crooks as a genuine threat. He later scaled the exterior of a manufacturing facility 135 meters from the stage, positioned himself with a rifle, and carried a detonator for makeshift explosive devices hidden in his nearby parked car.
Cheatle stated that the rally would have been stopped if agents had been informed of an “actual threat,” emphasising the distinction between someone flagged as suspicious and someone deemed a genuine threat. She mentioned that she is awaiting the investigation’s outcome when questioned about the absence of agents on the roof or the use of drones for surveillance, prompting frustration from committee members.
“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, with nearly thirty years of experience at the agency, insisted she was the most suitable candidate to head the Secret Service despite the setbacks. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., noted that the former Secret Service director in charge during the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan eventually resigned.
Trump sustained an injury to his ear, one rally attendee was fatally shot, and two others were wounded when Crooks began shooting with an AR-style rifle from a nearby rooftop shortly after Trump started his speech at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Despite being informed multiple times about a suspicious individual before the shooting, Cheatle displayed no intention of resigning.
This attack on Trump marked the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Reagan was shot in 1981 and is the latest in a series of security breaches by the Secret Service, which has been under public scrutiny and investigation for years.
Melissa Enoch
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