Senators confront and chase Secret Service director at RNC: ‘You owe the people answers’

MILWAUKEE — Four senators confronted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Wednesday evening at the Republican National Convention, demanding that she “resign tonight or start answering our questions.”

GOP Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, John Barrasso of Wyoming, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota chased Cheatle through the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

“Every one of us had questions that we wanted to ask. We thought we didn’t get any of the responses that were necessary,” said Barrasso, who chairs the Senate Republican Conference. “Either you resign tonight or start answering our questions right now about the death threat to President Trump and allowing him to go on stage.”

The Post also witnessed the Republicans get in Cheatle’s face as she walked outside the third floor of the arena with a gaggle of media following them.

Video of the tense encounter has since been posted to social media.

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The group moved at a clipped pace across the floor as Cheatle listened with a poker face.

Cheatle and FBI Director Christopher Wray briefed senators for about half an hour earlier in the day Wednesday, but Barrasso and others griped that they were stuck in a queue and unable to get the kinds of answers they sought.

Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe Jr. and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate were also on that conference call.

They revealed details about how the suspect, Thomas Mathew Crooks, scouted the site days earlier and had been flagged as suspicious by the Secret Service almost an hour before the assassination attempt.

Blackburn quickly rattled through those details with Cheatle and demanded an explanation of why anyone would “allow the president to go on stage when you know that you’ve got a potential threat.”

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“I don’t think that this is the forum to have this discussion,” Cheatle shot back. “This hospitality suite is actually to thank the partners who have helped secure the Republican National Convention.”

“I would not want to take away from [that],” she went on. “I am happy to answer questions. We will do it in an appropriate format.”

Barrasso demanded they find a place to “do it right now” and another senator complained that she “hung up” on them earlier in the day.

Cheatle then left and the senators decided to follow her, peppering the director with a flurry of questions, insisting that “you answer to us.”

“This was an assassination attempt, you owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers,” Blackburn chided during the chase.

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“It is appalling that the Secret Service director refused to answer our questions. This is one of the greatest security failures in the history of the agency. She can run but she cannot hide. She is a failed leader and she needs to immediately step down from her position,” Blackburn later said in a statement to The Post.

During the chase, an animated Barrasso went up to Cheatle and said, “You cannot run away from your responsibility to the United States.”

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Post in a statement that “Cheatle has no intentions to step down.”

“She deeply respects members of Congress and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews.”

Trump narrowly evaded an assassin’s bullet during a rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday. Ultimately, it nicked his ear. The suspect killed one individual and severely wounded two others.

Since that assassination attempt against Trump, Republicans in both chambers of Congress have called upon Cheatle to tender her resignation.

The Post previously reported that Cheatle landed her role, in part, because of her close ties to first lady Jill Biden.

A 27-year veteran of the Secret Service, Cheatle took the reins of the agency in 2022. She did a stint on Jill Biden’s detail, sources explained to The Post.

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