Facing down angry congressional lawmakers on Monday, July 22, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was charged with her Secret Service having failed, in quite abysmal fashion, to secure the Butler, PA, Trump campaign rally site at which the former president was shot in the ear by an assassin, with one Trump supporter dying in the shooting. Congressman Jim Jordan pressured Cheatle on whether her agency diverted resources away from the rally to instead staff First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
As background, many lawmakers, particularly on the right, are calling for Cheatle to resign, with those calls made all the more vociferous given the number of apparent security failures that led to 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks being able to get off multiple rounds at the former president despite having no military experience and being spotted by many people leading up to the shooting.
Rep. Jordan, calling out Director Cheatle during the hearing, said, “The day after President Trump was shot, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, ‘The assertion that a member of the former president’s security team requested additional resources that the U.S. Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false.'”
Continuing, Rep. Jordan noted, “The next day [DHS] Secretary Mayorkas said ‘That is an unequivocally false assertion. We had not received any requests for additional security measures that were rebuffed.” He then asked, “Were you guessing or lying when you said you didn’t turn down additional requests from President Trump’s detail?”
Director Cheatle denied that allegation completely, saying, “Neither, sir, and I appreciate the question. What I can tell you is, for the event in Butler there were no requests that were denied.” Rep, Jordan, obviously not trusting her to tell the full and complete truth about the matter, fired back, “Well maybe they got tired of asking!”
On that same note, he then asked, “How many times did you turn them down ahead of that?” Flailing around while attempting to dodge the question, Cheatle told him, “A denial of request does not equal a vulnerability. There are a number of ways that risks of threats can be mitigated, with a number of different assets whether that be through personnel, whether that be through technology.”
Rep. Jordan was visibly agitated and frustrated with her response. Sounding off over what he alleged was a “huge change” made by the Secret Service’s spokesman just a few days earlier, he said, “That’s pretty darn frustrating not just for me but for the American people!” She just said, in reply to his anger, “I hear your frustration.”
Watch them here:
Cheatle, in her opening statement, did admit that the incident was a massive failure for the Secret Service, saying, “The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13th is the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades and I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts. I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief and a hero, who was killed in this senseless shooting. I would also like to acknowledge those who were injured in Butler, Pennsylvania, David Dutch and James Copenhaven, and I wish them a speedy recovery.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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