On Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle faced questions from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, after some have called for her resignation in the wake of the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13th. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers were in attendance at the hearing, some repeatedly demanding that she resign over security failures that allowed a gunman to scale a roof and open fire at a campaign rally.
Cheatle wrote in remarks obtained by ABC News prior to Monday’s hearing: “As an agency, we are fully cooperating with the FBI’s investigation, the oversight you have initiated here, and conducting our own internal mission assurance review at my direction. Likewise, we will cooperate with the pending external review and the DHS Office of the Inspector General.”
Speaking to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Cheatle said she took “full responsibility for any security lapses in our agency” and admitted that the Secret Service failed in its mission to protect former President Donald Trump. While Cheatle evaded many questions about the investigation into the shooting, she admitted: “The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed.”
Cheatle characterized the assassination attempt as “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades,” acknowledging that there were “significant” problems at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, where the former president was shot in the ear.
The director said that before Trump took the stage at the rally, Secret Service had been notified “between two and five times” that there was a suspicious person in the area. Members of the House Oversight Committee questioned Cheatle for new information about the security breakdown and what is being done to ensure it never happens again, however, she repeatedly stonewalled lawmakers’ efforts to get answers and pointed to the ongoing FBI investigation.
Cheatle said that security for Trump “has been steadily increasing as threats evolve” but claimed it already had been increasing even before the shooting. The federal agency protects at least 36 individuals on a daily basis as well as visiting world leaders, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who arrived Monday in Washington).
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