Secret Service Chief Admits Agency Failed to Protect Trump During Assassination Attempt

(WASHINGTON) — Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle admitted on Monday that her agency failed to protect former President Donald Trump during a heated congressional hearing. Lawmakers from both major political parties demanded her resignation over security failures that allowed a gunman to scale a roof and attempt to assassinate Trump.

In her first congressional hearing about the July 13 assassination attempt, Cheatle repeatedly frustrated lawmakers by dodging questions, citing ongoing investigations. She declared the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades. Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service was alerted to a suspicious person “between two and five times” before the shooting.

Despite this, Cheatle showed no sign of resigning, even while stating she takes “full responsibility” for any security lapses at the Pennsylvania rally. She pledged to “move heaven and earth” to prevent a similar incident from happening again.

“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” Cheatle said.

Lawmakers questioned Cheatle relentlessly about how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be under tight security, and why Trump was allowed to take the stage after local law enforcement had identified as suspicious.

Cheatle acknowledged that Crooks had been spotted by local law enforcement prior to 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 have stopped the rally if agents had been informed of an “actual threat,” but she emphasized there’s a difference between someone identified as suspicious and someone identified as a true threat.

Asked why there were no agents on the roof where the shooter was positioned or if the Secret Service used drones to monitor the area, Cheatle replied that she is still awaiting the outcome of the investigation, prompting groans and outbursts from committee members.

“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.”

Cheatle, who has worked at the agency for nearly three decades, remained adamant that she was the “right person” to lead the Secret Service despite the failures. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., pointed out that the Secret Service director who oversaw the agency when there was an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan later resigned.

“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 , one rally attendee 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 searching 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 Convention as well as Trump’s appearances. He also searched for information about major depressive disorder.