WASHINGTON − The House Oversight Committee’s hearing with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday saw leading members from both parties call for her resignation over the agency’s failure to prevent the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) and top Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said Cheatle should step down amid bipartisan criticism for what she acknowledged was a “colossal failure” to prevent the attack.
“I don’t want to add to the director’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, but I will be joining the chairman in calling for the resignation of the director, just because I think that this relationship is irretrievable at this point, and I think that the director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country, and we need to very quickly move beyond this,” Raskin said.
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) accused the Secret Service of being outsmarted by the gunman, who authorities say borrowed his father’s AR-style rifle for the attack on July 13 at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“How did a 20-year-old loner with a week’s notice pick the absolute best location to assassinate President Trump when the entire Secret Service missed it?” Fallon asked during the hearing. “Director Cheatle, under your leadership, your agency got outsmarted and outmaneuvered by a 20-year-old. How can we have any confidence that you could stop trained professionals from a nefarious nation-state?”
“Those are absolutely questions that we need to have answered,” Cheatle replied.
Lawmakers also voiced impatience with Cheatle’s vague answers and 60-day timeline for an internal review of the planning and response to the shooting. Raskin emphasized the seriousness of the situation.
“This is deadly serious business,” Raskin said.
At various points, Cheatle acknowledged that agents should have prevented the gunman from climbing the roof of a building 150 yards from Trump’s lectern and firing eight shots. However, she admitted the agency still doesn’t have key pieces of information, such as when the Secret Service’s sniper team on a nearby rooftop received warnings about the gunman before the shooting began.
“I don’t have the timeline of how the individual accessed the roof, where they accessed the roof, or how long they were on the roof,” Cheatle said.
Lawmakers occasionally erupted at Cheatle and accused her of withholding information. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) got her to acknowledge the agency’s performance as a “colossal failure.”
“You’re full of s— today,” Mace told Cheatle. “You’re just being completely dishonest.”
Six Takeaways from the Hearing
1. Secret Service distinguishes between ‘suspicious’ behavior and a ‘threat’
Lawmakers described a timeline of how law enforcement officers identified a suspicious man nearly an hour before the gunfire erupted without confronting the individual. Local police officers flagged the suspect with a range-finder at 5:20 p.m., radioed their concerns, and sent around pictures, said Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.).
At 5:51 p.m., the Secret Service was notified about the suspicious person by state police. A minute later, they distributed the information. Trump took the stage at 6:03 p.m. At 6:09 p.m., rallygoers saw the suspect climbing onto the roof of the building about 150 yards from Trump’s lectern. At 6:11 p.m., shots rang out.
“That doesn’t look like suspicious behavior, that looks like threatening behavior,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Calif.) said after playing a video from rallygoers of the man climbing on the roof. “That’s a threat right there. The guy’s on the roof and everybody’s yelling at him.”
Cheatle said the Secret Service would never have allowed Trump to take the stage if they were aware of a threat, but the man had only been identified as suspicious.
2. Nearly one-minute delay in removing Trump from the stage after shooting began
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) questioned the delay of more than a minute in removing Trump from the stage after he was shot in the ear on July 13. The shooter had several magazines of bullets and fired eight shots before being killed by the Secret Service, Lynch said.
“There was considerable delay in removing the president from the podium after the shooting began,” Lynch said. “He had the capacity and the ability, if he was not neutralized, to basically mow down that whole Secret Service detachment, as well as the president.” Cheatle said agents threw themselves on top of Trump in under three seconds after the shooting began.
“Our personnel created a body bunker on top of the president, shielding him,” Cheatle said.
3. Lawmakers voice impatience with the pace of the investigation
Cheatle said the Secret Service is conducting a review of its planning and responses to the assassination attempt, expected to be completed in 60 days. Lawmakers complained that wasn’t fast enough with a presidential election looming and political polarization running high.
“There need to be answers,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said. “This is not a moment of theater. We have to make policy decisions, and we have to make them now.”
Cheatle said the agency has been conducting an analysis since the shooting and adapting its security measures. Adjustments were made at the Republican National Convention last week and for officials protected in Washington, she said. Changes were also made for President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and her anticipated running mate, Cheatle said.
“I want to assure you and everyone on this committee that I’m not waiting for a report to take action,” Cheatle added. “I assure you when the review is completed, there will be accountability.”
4. Secret Service provided all requested security at Trump rally: Cheatle
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked whether the Secret Service turned down requests from the Trump campaign for additional security, accusing the agency of “cutting corners.”
Cheatle said a denial of a request for staffing doesn’t equate to a vulnerability. Threats and risks can be mitigated through personnel or technology. She wouldn’t address whether previous Trump requests for staffing had been rejected but stated none were for the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was shot.
“For the event in Butler, there were no requests that were denied,” Cheatle said. After previous rejections, Jordan said, “Maybe they got tired of asking.”
5. Democrats focus on gun control after mass shooting
Several Democrats on the Oversight and Accountability Committee called for a resumption of the assault weapons ban to protect all Americans.
Congress banned the sale of the AR-15, the weapon used in the attack on Trump, and other semiautomatic firearms in 1994. But the ban lapsed in 2004 and Raskin said shooting deaths began climbing again. Last year, there were 655 mass shootings that killed 712 people and wounded nearly 2,700, he said.
There have been 10 mass shootings since the attempt on Trump’s life. The incident at his rally wasn’t even the deadliest on that day; a mass shooting at a nightclub in Birmingham, Alabama, killed four people and wounded 10, Raskin noted.
“The list is a grim reminder of the horrific damage and death wrought by assault weapons, and the AR-15 in particular, that have taken the lives of our children, parents, colleagues, and neighbors,” Raskin said.
