Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle appeared before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday, to answer questions about the failure of the Secret Service to prevent a shooting on July 13 that took the life of one man, injured two others, but that missed its target — Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president.
Cheatle called the incident the agency’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.
She said that there were security lapses, but she refused to answer specific questions of the committee, which is headed by Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican.
Comer said Cheatle’s agency has become the “face of incompetence.”
“Because Donald Trump is alive, and thank God he is, you look incompetent,” said Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner, who has called for President Joe Biden to fire Cheatle if she did not resign. “If Donald Trump had been killed, you would have looked culpable.”
Cheatle repeatedly told the committee that she is “unable to answer details” about how the shooting unfolded, due to the F.B.I. investigation under way.
Cheatle said that there were no requests by Trump for additional protection for the rally in Butler, Penn., where a man was able to get on top of a nearby roof and take several shots at Trump, nicking Trump’s ear but hitting people behind him before Secret Service snipers shot the assassin dead.
” I don’t understand how you can continue to stay in the position you’re in when this is a failure of historic magnitude,” said Republican Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama, adding that nothing like the incident had happened since the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan 43 years ago. “You failed in this case in a spectacular way,” he said, adding that the incident put many lives in danger, including members of the Secret Service.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, asked Cheatle: “Now Director Cheatle, would you agree that this is the most serious security lapse since President Reagan was shot in 1981, of the Secret Service?
Cheatle responded, “Yes, sir, I would.”
Khanna continued: “Stewart Knight was in charge of the Secret Service [when Reagan was shot]. Do you know what he did afterwards?”
Cheatle responded, “He remained on duty.”
Khanna corrected her: “He resigned. He resigned.”
In a statement on the committee’s website, Rep. Comer called on Cheatle to resign.
“Given the historic security failures leading up to and during the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Chairman Comer called on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign in order to ensure accountability. Chairman Comer encouraged Americans of all political stripes to unite against extremism and political violence and concluded action must be taken to ensure this never happens again,” the statement reads.
Watch the hearing here:
We are very lucky that this administration has not got us into a war or situation that we don’t need.
This and other things done by Biden has just about ruined this country.
Incompetence is their main objective.
On the average (and only on the average) women are better suited than men in many occupations and activities. Being a Secret Service agent is not one of them. Its just a simple, undeniable, fact. Anyone offended by that fact views the world unrealistically.
OK … (!!!)
So, everyone agrees that this is the “most significant operational failure.”
What exactly and specifically is the root cause?
How // Why did this happen on her shift?
What is being done to mitigate this now?
When can we expect accountability?