The head of the Secret Service said Monday that the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was the agency’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed,” Kimberly Cheatle told the House Oversight Committee, where she took full responsibility for the agency’s mistakes related to the attack at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally and vowed to “move heaven and earth” to ensure it is not repeated.
It is Cheatle’s first appearance before lawmakers since the July 13 shooting that left one bystander dead. Trump was hit in the ear and two other aides were wounded after Thomas Matthew Crooks fired from a nearby building.
Lawmakers have expressed anger at how the attacker was able to get so close to the Republican presidential candidate when he was supposed to be under close surveillance. The Secret Service has acknowledged that years earlier it had turned down some requests from the Trump campaign to increase security at its events.
Lawmakers peppered Cheatle with questions about why he should be allowed to keep his job and why Trump was allowed on stage after local authorities identified a suspect.
Asked why there were no agents on the roof where the gunman was located or whether the Secret Service used drones to monitor the area, Cheatle said he is still waiting for the investigation to play out, prompting groans and outbursts from committee members.
“Director Cheatle, since Donald Trump is alive, and thank God he is, you look incompetent,” said Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio. “If he had been killed, you would look guilty.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the incident a “failure,” while several lawmakers have called for Cheatle to resign. The Secret Service has said she has no intention of resigning, and so far she retains the support of President Joe Biden and Mayorkas.
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 acknowledged that it refused some requests from the Trump campaign to increase security at its events in the years leading up to the assassination attempt. But Cheatle said “no assets were denied” for Trump’s July 13 rally.
Authorities have been searching for clues about what motivated Crooks, but so far have found no ideological leanings that could help explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone found photos of Trump, Biden and other top government officials, and also discovered that he had searched for the dates of the Democratic National Convention as well as appearances by Trump.
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