Wednesday, 06 November 2024

Secret Service Director Gives Most Disastrous Congressional Testimony Since Claudine Gay

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Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle repeatedly refused to answer the House Oversight and Accountability Committee's basic questions about her agency's actions leading up to the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump and faced bipartisan calls for her resignation.

One Democrat, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (Fla.), compared Cheatle's performance to college presidents' during a December hearing on campus anti-Semitism. He noted that those leaders, including Harvard University's Claudine Gay, resigned afterward.


Lawmakers asked Cheatle questions about how many protective staff were on site on the day of the assassination attempt, how many bullet casings were found after the incident, why shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks wasn't considered a threat when he was seen on the roof with a rangefinder, or whether he was approached by agents. Each time, Cheatle, who appeared under subpoena, said she wouldn't answer because an internal investigation is ongoing, which she said should finish in about 60 days.

"Director, I'm not going to sit here and say you ought to resign, but I am going to say that you have not given us confidence that you have the ability to understand what happened," said Rep. Pete Sessions (R., Texas). "How long do we have to wait before you can give us credible answers?"


"You’ve had a few days to be able to draw your own analysis of this. You should understand the entire process," he continued. "I've not heard you say one thing about 'my analysis is,' 'I have asked these questions.' It's always 'I've got to sit back and wait for someone else to decide that.'"

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) made similar remarks.

"The idea that a report will be finalized in 60 days, let alone prior to any actionable decisions that would be made, is simply not acceptable," she said. "It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president, regardless of party. There need to be answers."


Cheatle said the Secret Service was already implementing changes as a result of the assassination attempt. But she repeatedly refused to share what those changes are.

Both the director and the Secret Service as a whole have been under fire since Crooks opened fire on Trump at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pa. The shooter hit the former president in the ear, killed one person, and injured two others before he was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Cheatle acknowledged that the incident was "the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades" and said she took "full responsibility for any security lapse." But she refused to say whether anyone would be fired. Some lawmakers, in turn, called for her termination or resignation.

"I just don't think this is partisan. If you have an assassination attempt on a president, a former president, or a candidate, you need to resign," said Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.).


"You should have come today ready to give us answers. I call upon you to resign today," Rep. Andy Biggs (R., Ariz.) said.

Lawmakers were often seeking basic facts about the assassination attempt. Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.), for example, asked how many Secret Service agents were assigned to Trump at the rally and later asked if the Secret Service used drones for surveillance.


Cheatle replied that she wouldn't "get into the specifics."

She gave a similar response when Biggs asked a series of questions, such as whether the perpetrator acted alone, whether his gun was already on the roof, and what the event perimeter was.


"This is a specific that you ought to know as someone who's said, 'The buck stops with me, I'm going to stay in my job, I'm going to give the answers to the American people, and I know what happened,' except for you're not going to tell us," Biggs said.

Several lawmakers indicated that Cheatle didn't provide the committee with her opening statement in advance of the hearing. They questioned why, then, the statement appeared in several news outlets earlier in the morning.

"I have no idea how my statement got out," Cheatle said.

"Well, that's bull****," Rep. Nancy Mace (R., S.C.) said.

Published under: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , assassination , Donald Trump , House Oversight and Government Reform Committee , James Comer , Ro Khanna , Secret Service


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