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Secret Service director grilled on 'stunning' failures to protect Trump
By John Bacon, Josh Meyer, Bart Jansen, Ken Tran and Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY,
1 day ago
WASHINGTON − Embattled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle faced heated questioning Monday at the House Oversight Committee's hearing on the agency's missteps in the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Cheatle was repeatedly grilled throughout a hearing that lasted close to five hours as lawmakers chided her for answers they found unsatisfactory, with Republicans leading the way but Democrats joining in as well.
Numerous GOP lawmakers and at least one Democratic congressman had called for Cheatle's resignation before Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee, joined the push Monday for the director to leave her post.
Cheatle signaled she has no intention of resigning, saying she is "the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.”
Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, opened the hearing by lauding the efforts of individual Secret Service agents that day. But he said he was concerned the agency lacks the "proper management" and said Cheatle should resign. Cheatle, in prepared remarks, said "we failed." She took “full responsibility” for security lapses that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks , 20, to open fire on the crowd with an AR-15-style rifle before being killed by a Secret Service sniper.
“I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13 does not happen again," Cheatle said.
Raskin's call for Cheatle to step down came toward the end of the nearly five-hour-long hearing.
“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,'' Raskin said, "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 also said that while the hearing aired lots of detail about Secret Service failures on July 13, it also underscored once again a failure “on the part of Congress, because the mass shooting that took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, is replicated all over the country every day” and more gun safety is needed.
Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, said he personally re-enacted the shooting in Texas several days later and found that he would have easily been able to shoot Trump from the same distance and angle with a similar gun, even though he’s not an experienced shooter with an AR-15 rifle. Fallon also accused the Secret Service of being outsmarted by Crooks, who authorities say used his father’s rifle in the assault.
“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?” asked Fallon. “Director Cheatle, on your leadership, your agency got outsmarted and outmaneuvered by a 20-year-old. How can we have any confidence that you could stop train professionals from a nefarious nation state?”
“Those are absolutely questions that we need to have answered,” Cheatle replied.
“I know the questions,” Fallon retorted. “But the fact of the matter is we can't have that confidence.”
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., known for her penchant for getting a viral soundbite, went after Cheatle and told her she was “full of s—,” eliciting groans from the committee. Mace pressed Cheatle on news reports of her opening statement hours before the committee had the statement themselves. Cheatle responded she did not know how her statement was distributed, which drew more colorful language.
The South Carolina Republican also offered to yield her five minutes of speaking time for Cheatle to draft her resignation. “No, thank you,” Cheatle replied.
Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., interjected Mace’s questioning and called for members to maintain decorum.
Cheatle admitted under questioning that she did not know whether the gunman put the AR-style rifle on the roof sometime before witnesses saw him climbing up the side of the building to the rooftop and shooting – another potentially significant security failure.
“Was the gun already on the roof, or did the shooter carry the gun up with him?” Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona asked Cheatle.
“I do not have that information at this time,” Cheatle replied.
“Well, when was the last sweep of that roof done prior to the rally?” Biggs asked.
“I do not have that information at this time,” Cheatle said.
After some more questions, Biggs called for an independent review of the shooting, saying he wasn’t getting the answers he wanted from Cheatle. “You should have come today ready to give us answers,” Biggs told Cheatle.
Raskin said the assassination attempt revealed “stunning” and “shocking” security failures of the Secret Service and 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 July 13 shooting, 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, Raskin said, and the rally shooting wasn’t even the deadliest on that day. A mass shooting killed four people and wounded 10 at a nightclub in Birmingham, Alabama.
“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.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told Cheatle her 60-day goal to review planning for the rally was “unacceptable” with an election 100 days away and candidates under international threats.
“There need to be answers,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is not a moment of theater. We have to make policy decisions and we have to make them now.”
Cheatle said she is not waiting for a report to take action.
"We have been conducting analysis all along," she said. "And we have been adding additional features to our security details" since the incident occurred.
Reacting to Cheatle's answer, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., looked at Cheatle in disbelief while Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., broke into laughter.
Cheatle said Secret Service agents would have never let Trump on stage to begin speaking if they had known of a legitimate threat to his life from a gunman at the rally. Democratic. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois told Cheatle, however, that media reports and video footage show the Secret Service, local and state authorities and even rallygoers had known of the threat at least 20 minutes before the gunman began shooting.
That’s when the “state police informed the Secret Service of their concern,” he said, citing NBC News reporting that also said, “at 5:53 p.m. the Secret Service notified its snipers about the gunman” – or 18 minutes before the first shot was fired.
“The rally wasn't paused at that point either, correct?” Krishnamoorthi asked.
Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., questioned why the Secret Service didn’t put personnel on the roof of the building the gunman occupied by saying a fictional, comic sheriff’s deputy could have protected Trump better.
“You could have a put Barney Fife on the roof and kept somebody from getting up there,” Palmer said, referring to a deputy sheriff character on “The Andy Griffith Show.”
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 got off eight shots before he was killed by the Secret Service, Lynch said.
“There was considerable delay in removing the president from podium after the shooting began,” Lynch said. “He (Crooks) 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,” she said.
Lynch asked whether anyone confronted the gunman about bringing a range-finder to the rally, but Cheatle said people often bring them to outdoor events.
“That would certainly raise my suspicion,” Lynch said. “Anybody confront him on that? Anybody ask him questions: 'What are you doing with a range finder?'''
Cheatle said she didn’t have details about whether anyone confronted the shooter. But she said range finders are not a "prohibited item" at outdoor venues.
Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, pressed Cheatle for not providing tighter security for Trump given the U.S. intelligence community’s warnings that Iran wants to assassinate him and other U.S. leaders in retaliation for the killing of a top Iranian general. Turner asked Cheatle if the security plan for the July 13 rally where Trump was shot was “sufficient for the specific and generalized threat to Donald Trump's life from Iran?”
“Yes, I do believe it was,” Cheatle said.
Turner said FBI Director Chris Wray briefed lawmakers on the shooting and that Wray was “shocked” the threat from Iran was not “baked in” to the Secret Service plan for the rally. Turner said Wray told lawmakers that Cheatle should resign as a result of the failures, and that President Joe Biden should fire her if she refuses to do so.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, got into a heated exchange with Cheatle on past requests for additional security for events the Trump campaign made and the Secret Service denied. “More than once they’ve asked for additional help and you’ve turned them down,” Jordan said.
Cheatle told lawmakers that “no requests” for Trump’s rally on July 13 were denied, but acknowledged her agency has rejected requests from Trump’s campaign before for increased security. Cheatle argued “a denial of request is not equal to vulnerability.”
Jordan scoffed at Cheatle’s response, saying “maybe they got tired of asking.”
Kimberly Cheatle, director of the Secret Service, arrives to testify in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on July 22, 2024. Megan Smith, USA TODAY
Cheatle acknowledged the agency prefers “sterile rooftops,” or rooftops where no one is able to shoot at person being protected − and had failed in that effort.
“We are still looking into responsibilities, and who was going to provide overwatch,” or protection against rooftop snipers, Cheatle said. “But the Secret Service in general, not speaking specifically to this incident, when we are providing overwatch, whether that be through counter-snipers or other technology, prefer to have sterile rooftops.”
Cheatle said the investigation would help answer key questions regarding that failure.
As Cheatle answered, several GOP lawmakers groaned "No" and "Come on!" Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., shook her head repeatedly and interjected, telling Cheatle to "resign."
Cheatle, the 27th director of the agency, was sworn in to office Sept. 17, 2022, according to her bio on the agency website. It said Cheatle was “responsible for successfully executing the agency’s integrated mission” of dignitary protection and investigations by 7,800 special agents and others.
Prior to her appointment, Cheatle served as senior director in Global Security at PepsiCo, where she directed and implemented security protocols. Before joining PepsiCo, Cheatle served “with distinction” for 27 years in the Secret Service, her bio said, including as Assistant Director of the Office of Protective Operations. She also was part of the protective security detail for then-Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, forming a close bond with both of them.
“Jill and I know firsthand Kim’s commitment to her job and to the Secret Service’s people and mission,” Biden said when appointing her on Aug. 24, 2022. “When Kim served on my security detail when I was vice president, we came to trust her judgement and counsel. She is a distinguished law enforcement professional with exceptional leadership skills.”
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