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CV NEWS FEED // Biden-Harris administration Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle told the House Oversight Committee on Monday that “the assassination attempt of former President Trump on July 13 is the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.”
In her opening statement at the Committee’s hearing, Cheatle stated that she takes “full responsibility for any security lapse” of her agency. Despite this, Cheatle has refused to resign.
“We are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations,” she said. “We must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13 does not happen again.”
Cheatle concluded her statement by saying that the Secret Service’s mission “is not political. It is literally a matter of life and death.”
“And the tragic events of July 13 remind us of that,” she emphasized.
As questioning began, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-KY, pointed out that the Secret Service “has an annual budget of $3.1 billion,” and 8,000 employees – numbers that Cheatle confirmed.
“Obviously there were many security failures on the day of the attempted assassination and leading up to that day,” the chairman continued.
Sloped roof?
He then singled out the roof of the building building from which gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired shots at the former president and the crowd of his Butler, Pennsylvania rally attendees.
“At any point Saturday [July 13], did the Secret Service have an agent on top of that roof?” Comer asked Cheatle.
Cheatle did not directly answer Comer’s question, instead replying that “there’s still an ongoing investigation.”
Comer then asked Cheatle “Can you answer why the Secret Service did not place a single agent on the roof?”
Cheatle responded: “We are still looking into the advanced process and the decisions made.”
Critics blasted Cheatle last week after she claimed that an agent was not stationed on the building due to it having a “sloped roof” – which she alleged was too unsafe for an agent to stand on.
During the hearing, Comer confronted Cheatle about this remark. “Do you fear that immediately creates an opportunity for future would-be assassins to look for a slanted roof?” he asked. “This is a huge question that every American has.”
“There was a plan in place to provide overwatch,” Cheatle said, “and we are still looking into responsibilities and who was going to provide overwatch. But, the Secret Service in general … when we are providing overwatch … prefer to have sterile rooftops.”
Did the shooter fly a drone?
Comer pressed Cheatle on “reports that the shooter used a drone just a few hours before the rally start time. Is that accurate?”
Cheatle said that she is still “waiting for the final report.”
“If you can’t answer the question, that’s your answer,” Comer said.
The congressman then followed up asking her if she knows if “the shooter used a drone before the shooting.”
Cheatle replied: “That information has been passed to us from the FBI.”
Requests for additional resources?
Comer then asked “How many Secret Service agents were assigned to President Trump during the day of the rally?”
“Again, I’m not going to get into the specifics of the numbers of personnel that we had there,” Cheatle stated. “But we feel that there was a sufficient number of agents assigned.”
Lastly, Comer asked Cheatle: “Before July 13, had the Trump detail requested additional resources?”
“What I can tell you is,” Cheatle said, “for the event on July 13 … the assets that were requested for that day were given.”
In the past few days, multiple reports appeared to contradict the Secret Service director’s answer.
On Saturday, The New York Post reported that “Secret Service officials repeatedly rejected Donald Trump’s request for additional security in the two years before [the] assassination attempt.”
Per the Post, Trump “asked for more agents and magnetometers at large public events he attended, as well as extra snipers for outdoor venues,” and “[e]ach request was shot down by senior officials who claimed the agency lacked the resources Trump was asking for.”
‘Guessing or lying?’
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-OH, confronted Cheatle: “Director, were you guessing or lying?”
Jordan continued:
The day after President Trump is shot, [a Secret Service spokesman] said “The assertion that a member of the former president’s security team requested additional security resources that the U.S. Secret Service of the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false.”
The next day, [Biden-Harris administration Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas said: “That is an unequivocally false assertion. We have not received any requests for additional security measures that were rebuffed.”
>> SECRET SERVICE SCRUTINIZED AFTER TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT <<
Jordan pointed out that just days later, media outlets such as The New York Post, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that Trump’s security detail was indeed denied repeated requests for additional security.
“So, which is it,” Jordan pressed Cheatle, “were you guessing or lying when you said you didn’t turn down requests from President Trump’s detail.”
“Neither, sir.” Cheatle replied. She claimed that for Trump’s Butler rally “there were no requests that were denied.”
“Maybe they got tired of asking,” Jordan quipped. “Maybe you turned them down so darn much they said, ‘Not worth asking.’”
“A denial of a request is not equal to a vulnerability,” Cheatle claimed.
On multiple occasions, Jordan asked Cheatle how many requests were made, but she repeatedly refused to provide a direct numerical answer.
After several minutes of back-and-forth, Jordan stated: “Director, it looks like that you won’t answer some pretty basic questions.”
He added: “It looks like you got a nine-percent raise and you cut corners when it came to protecting one of the most important individuals, most well-known individuals on the planet, a former president, likely the guy who’s going to be the next president.”
“Looks like you guys were cutting corners,” Jordan repeated.
‘Multiple security failures’
Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-MA, stated that “there were multiple security failures” at Trump’s July 13 rally.
Lynch said that “there was a failure to isolate the podium” Trump spoke at “from exposure to direct fire.”
Lynch asked Cheatle who exactly was responsible for making that call.
Cheatle replied: “Sir, I don’t have a specific person to identify.”
Lynch also questoned the director over “a breakdown in security and failure to confront the shooter over an hour before [Trump] began his remarks, when the shooter was identified as a person of interest.”
Cheatle replied: “We are nine days out and there are [a] multitude of interviews that are still taking place.”
AOC: ‘There need to be answers’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, slammed Cheatle over her earlier remark that a report may not be available for another 60 days.
“The notion of a report coming out in 60 days when the threat environment is so high in the United States irrespective of party is not acceptable,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“This is not theater,” the congresswoman emphasized. “This is not about jockeying. This is about the safety of some of our most highly-targeted and valued targets internationally and domestically.”
“It has been ten days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States regardless of party,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “There need to be answers.”
‘Spectacularly failed’
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-AZ, told Cheatle: “Your agency has a no-fail mission and on Saturday, July 13, your agency spectacularly failed.”
“The failure resulted in the death of Corey Comperatore and the serious injury of two other rally attendees … besides the injuries to President Trump,” Biggs noted:
It is unfathomable that a 20-year-old on the radar of Secret Service and local law enforcement before President Trump went on stage was able to climb onto the roof of a building with a rifle and fire off multiple rounds before he was neutralized.
Biggs then asked Cheatle if the would-be assassin was “acting alone.”
“Again,” Cheatle said, “I would have to refer you to the FBI’s investigation.”
‘The American people are watching’
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC, told Mace that “the American people are watching and they’re wondering if there are any questions you can answer honestly today.”
Mace then let Cheatle know that she was going to ask her a series of questions to which she mostly wanted “yes” or “no” answers. Cheatle said she understood the congresswoman’s request.
“My first question,” said Mace. “Both sides of the aisle today have asked for your resignation. Would you like to use my five minutes to draft your resignation letter, yes or no?”
“No, thank you,” Cheatle said.
“Was this a colossal failure?” Mace then asked.
“It was a failure,” answered Cheatle.
“Yes or no, ‘Was it a colossal failure?’ is the question,” Mace chided her. “Yes or no?”
Cheatle said, “I have admitted, this is –”
Mace cut her off. “This is a ‘yes or no’ series of questions,” she emphatically said. “Was this a colossal failure, yes or no?”
“Yes,” Cheatle finally said.
57 minutes
“Was this tragedy preventable?” Mace asked Cheatle. “Yes or no?”
“Yes,” said Cheatle.
Cheatle also answered “Yes” when Mace asked if the Secret Service was being transparent with federal lawmakers during the hearing.
The Secret Service director however failed to directly answer Mace’s follow-up question as to whether she needed to be subpoenaed in order to testify in front of the the Committee.
“We had to issue a subpoena to get you to show up today,” Mace pointed out. “That is not transparent by the way.”
After a few more minutes of heated exchange between the two women, Mace confronted Cheatle on her inability to answer most of her questions directly and concisely.
“You are being dishonest or lying,” Mace said. “These are important questions that the American people want answers to. And … you’re just dodging.”
Later, Mace asked Cheatle, “How many minutes went by between the time law enforcement saw and took photos of Crooks and the shooting? How many minutes?”
Cheatle said, “I am still verifying the timeline.”
“Fifty-seven minutes,” Mace said. “Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.”
‘Guarding Doritos’
Finally, one of the most talked-about exchanges of the entire hearing was between Cheatle and Rep. Pat Fallon, R-TX, a Catholic.
Fallon asked the Secret Service director: “How did a 20-year-old loner with a week’s notice pick the absolute best location to assassinate President Trump when the entire Secret Service missed it?”
“Director Cheatle,” Fallon continued, “under your leadership your agency got outsmarted and outmaneuvered by a 20-year-old. How do we have any confidence that you can stop trained professionals from a nefarious nation-state?”
Cheatle said: “Those are absolutely questions that we need to answer.”
“I know they’re questions,” Fallon fired back. “The fact of the matter is we can’t have that confidence.”
The congressman asked Cheatle if she had the ability to “beef up security” of any of the Secret Service’s protectees.
She answered “Yes I do.” She also acknowledged that there was an “increased threat” to Trump’s life.
Fallon then asked: “If [Trump] had been the sitting president would he have had the same security he had on July 13 or would it have been beefed up?”
“There is a difference between the sitting president,” Cheatle began to answer before Fallon cut her off.
Fallon said: “So, your answer is he didn’t.”
During the hearing, Fallon – an Air Force veteran – also presented information that appeared to contradict Cheatle’s “sloped roof” argument.
He pointed out that Cheatle put snipers on an even steeper roof.
“These are nothing but pathetic excuses, and they make no sense,” he said. “It wasn’t the roof that was dangerous, it was the nutjob on top of the roof.”
“It is a miracle President Trump wasn’t killed,” Fallon stated. “Corey Comperatore’s life is over because [the shooter] made it on the roof.”
“Your horrifying ineptitude and lack of skilled leadership is a disgrace,” Fallon told Cheatle. “You should be fired immediately and go back to guarding Doritos.”
