WASHINGTON (AP) — Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Monday that her agency failed in its mission to protect former President Donald Trump during a highly contentious congressional hearing with lawmakers of both major political parties demanding she resign over security failures that allowed a gunman to scale a roof and open fire at a campaign rally.
Click below to watch a replay of the hearing.
Cheatle was berated for hours by Republicans and Democrats, repeatedly angering lawmakers by evading questions about the investigation in her first congressional hearing over the July 13 assassination attempt She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” Cheatle said.
Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting. She also revealed that the roof from which Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally. Cheatle said she apologized to Trump in a phone call after the shooting.
Yet Cheatle remained defiant that she was the “right person” to lead the Secret Service, even as she said she takes full responsibility for any security lapses at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.
When Republican Rep. Nancy Mace suggested Cheatle begin drafting her resignation letter from the hearing room, Cheatle responded, “No, thank you.”
Democrats and Republicans were united in their exasperation as Cheatle said she didn't know or couldn't answer numerous questions more than a week after the shooting, which left one spectator dead.
"It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States. Regardless of party, there need to be answers,” said Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York.
Lawmakers peppered Cheatle with questions about how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded and about why Trump was allowed to take the stage after local law enforcement had identified Thomas Matthew Crooks as suspicious.
Cheatle acknowledged that Crooks had been seen by local law enforcement before the shooting with a rangefinder, a small device resembling binoculars that hunters use to measure distance from a target. She said the Secret Service would never have taken Trump onto the stage if it had known there was an “actual threat." But while Crooks had been reported as suspicious, he wasn't identified as a threat until seconds before the shooting, she said.
“An individual with a backpack is not a threat,” Cheatle said. “An individual with a range finder is not a threat.”
Asked about why there were no agents on the roof where the shooter was located or if the Secret Service used drones to monitor the area, Cheatle said she is still waiting for the investigation to play out, prompting groans and outbursts from members on the committee.
“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.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., noted that the Secret Service director who presided over the agency when there was an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan later stepped down.
“The one thing we have to have in this country are agencies that transcend politics and have the confidence of independents, Democrats, Republicans, progressives and conservatives,” Khanna said, adding that the Secret Service was no longer one of those agencies.
Trump was wounded in the ear, a former Pennsylvania fire chief was killed and two other attendees were injured after Crooks climbed atop the roof of a nearby building and opened fire with an AR-style rifle shortly after Trump started speaking at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The Secret Service has acknowledged it denied some requests by Trump's campaign for increased security at his events in the years before the assassination attempt. But Cheatle said that there were “no assets denied" for the rally.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has called what happened a “failure” while several lawmakers have called on Cheatle to resign or for President Joe Biden to fire her. The Secret Service has said Cheatle does not intend to step down. So far, she retains the support of Biden, a Democrat, and Mayorkas.
Before the shooting, local law enforcement had noticed Crooks pacing around the edges of the rally, peering into the lens of a rangefinder toward the rooftops behind the stage where the president later stood, officials have told The Associated Press. An image of Crooks was circulated by officers stationed outside the security perimeter.
Witnesses later saw him climbing up the side of a squat manufacturing building that was within 135 meters (157 yards) of the stage. He then set up his rifle and lay on the rooftop, a detonator in his pocket to set off crude explosive devices that were stashed in his car parked nearby.
The attack on Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Reagan was shot in 1981. It was the latest in a series of security lapses by the agency that has drawn investigations and public scrutiny over the years.
Authorities have been hunting for clues into what motivated Crooks but have not found any ideological bent that could help explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone found photos of Trump, Biden and other senior government officials and found that he had looked up the dates for the Democratic National Conventional as well as Trump’s appearances. He also searched for information about major depressive order.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Secret Service director is set to testify Monday before the House Oversight Committee as calls mount for her to resign over security failures at a rally where a 20-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
The House Oversight Committee hearing will be Kimberly Cheatle's first appearance before lawmakers since the July 13 Pennsylvania rally shooting that left one spectator dead. Trump was wounded in the ear and two other attendees were injured after Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed atop the roof of a nearby building and opened fire.
Kansas Congressman Jake LaTurner is a member of the committee.
Lawmakers have been expressing anger over how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded. The Secret Service has acknowledged it denied some requests by Trump's campaign for increased security at his events in the years before the assassination attempt.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has called what happened a “failure” while several lawmakers have called on Cheatle to resign or for President Joe Biden to fire her. The Secret Service has said Cheatle does not intend to step down. So far, she retains the support of Biden, a Democrat, and Mayorkas.
Before the shooting, local law enforcement had noticed Crooks pacing around the edges of the rally, peering into the lens of a rangefinder toward the rooftops behind the stage where the president later stood, officials have told The Associated Press. An image of Crooks was circulated by officers stationed outside the security perimeter.
Witnesses later saw him climbing up the side of a squat manufacturing building that was within 135 meters (157 yards) from the stage. He then set up his AR-style rifle and lay on the rooftop, a detonator in his pocket to set off crude explosive devices that were stashed in his car parked nearby.
The attack on Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It was the latest in a series of security lapses by the agency that has drawn investigations and public scrutiny over the years.
Authorities have been hunting for clues into what motivated Crooks, but so far have not found any ideological bent that could help explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone found photos of Trump, Biden and other senior government officials, and also found that he had looked up the dates for the Democratic National Conventional as well as Trump’s appearances. He also searched for information about major depressive order.
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WASHINGTON —The Secret Service has acknowledged it denied some requests by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign for increased security at his events in the years before the assassination attempt on him at a recent rally.
In the immediate aftermath of the July 13 attack, the law enforcement agency had denied rejecting such requests. But the Secret Service acknowledged late Saturday, a week after the attempt on Trump's life, that it had turned back some requests to increase security around the former president.
The reversal is likely to be a key focus of a congressional hearing Monday where Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is expected to appear before lawmakers who have been expressing anger over security lapses that allowed a 20-year-old gunman to climb atop the roof of a nearby building at Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fire his weapon.
Trump was wounded in the right ear, one rallygoer was killed and two others were injured. Secret Service gunmen killed the shooter.
The attack on Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It was the latest in a series of security lapses by the agency that has drawn investigations and public scrutiny over the years.
“The Secret Service has a vast, dynamic, and intricate mission. Every day we work in a dynamic threat environment to ensure our protectees are safe and secure across multiple events, travel, and other challenging environments,” the agency's chief spokesperson, Anthony Guglielmi, said in a statement released late Saturday to The Washington Post. The newspaper was first to report on the agency's reversal, which it said was based on detailed questions submitted to the agency.
“We execute a comprehensive and layered strategy to balance personnel, technology, and specialized operational needs,” Guglielmi said.
He said the agency will rely on state and local law enforcement departments in some cases where specialized Secret Service units are unavailable.
“In some instances where specific Secret Service specialized units or resources were not provided, the agency made modifications to ensure the security of the protectee,” Gugliemi said. “This may include utilizing state or local partners to provide specialized functions or otherwise identifying alternatives to reduce public exposure of a protectee.”
After the assassination attempt, as reports began to circulate that the agency had denied the Trump campaign's requests, Guglielmi issued a denial.
There is "an untrue assertion that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed,” Gugliemi said in a social media post. “This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has called what happened a “failure” while several lawmakers have called on Cheatle to resign or for President Joe Biden to fire her. The Secret Service has said Cheatle does not intend to step down. So far, she retains the support of Biden, a Democrat, and Mayorkas.
But the agency's acknowledgement that it had denied some of the campaign's requests sparked fresh condemnation on Sunday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on CNN’s “State of the Union, that the reversal “is just beyond the pale" and that Cheatle's "got a lot to answer for.”
Johnson said lawmakers on Monday would release details about a bipartisan congressional task force that will investigate the Secret Service.
Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which has subpoenaed Cheatle to appear at a hearing on Monday, said the Secret Service has a more than $3 billion annual budget that “is more than enough” to provide adequate protection.
“We want to know who’s at fault for what happened,” the Kentucky Republican said.
Trump’s son, Eric Trump, said Cheatle should resign in “absolute disgrace.”
“The fact that she is still in her job is beyond,” he said on Fox News' “Sunday Morning Futures,”
Biden has ordered an independent investigation. The Homeland Security Department and congressional committee are also investigating.
Trump says he was given no indication that law enforcement had identified a suspicious person when the former president took the stage in Pennsylvania. Some rallygoers said in interviews after the attempted assassination that they saw the gunman on the roof before Trump walked out onto the stage and had alerted law enforcement authorities on site.
In an interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters set to air Monday, Trump said, “No, nobody mentioned it, nobody said there was a problem” before he took the stage and a gunman opened fire. “They could’ve said, ‘Let’s wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 5 minutes, something.’ Nobody said. I think that was a mistake.”
Trump also questioned the security lapses and how the gunman was able to access the roof of the building.
“How did somebody get on that roof? And why wasn’t he reported? Because people saw that he was on the roof,” Trump said. “So you would’ve thought someone would’ve done something about it.”
Local law enforcement officers had seen the man and deemed him suspicious enough to circulate his photo and witnesses reported seeing him scaling the building.
Trump's campaign and the White House did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.