(AFP) – US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle acknowledged on Monday that the agency failed in its mission to prevent the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump but rejected bipartisan calls for her resignation.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders,” Cheatle said during a contentious hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
“On July 13, we failed,” she said. “As director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse.”
Cheatle said the attack on Trump, who was slightly wounded in his right ear while speaking at a campaign rally, was “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.”
“There clearly was a mistake and we will make every effort to make sure that this never happens again,” she said.
Both Republicans and Democrats called on Cheatle to resign and she drew the ire of lawmakers from both parties by refusing to provide specific details about the attack, citing the existence of multiple active investigations.
“I can speak to you in generalities,” she said.
The 20-year-old gunman opened fire on Trump with an AR-style assault rifle just minutes after the former Republican president and current White House candidate began speaking at the campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The gunman, perched on the roof of a nearby building, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper less than 30 seconds after firing the first of eight shots.
Investigators have concluded the young man, who lived in a town about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Butler, acted alone and have not been able to identify any strong ideological or political leanings.
Two rally attendees were seriously wounded and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter, Corey Comperatore, was shot dead.
Opening the hearing, Republican committee chairman James Comer said “this tragedy was preventable” and “it is my firm belief, Director Cheadle, that you should resign.”
“The Secret Service has a zero-fail mission, but it failed on July 13 and in the days leading up to the rally,” Comer said, adding that the agency has “become the face of incompetence.”
– ‘Lost the confidence of Congress’ –
Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, joined the bipartisan calls on Cheatle to step down.
“I don’t want to add to the director’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, but I will be joining the chairman in calling for the resignation,” Raskin said.
“I think that the director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country.”
Cheatle rebuffed the demands. “I think that I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time,” she said.
The Secret Service was alerted “two to five times” ahead of the shooting about a “suspicious individual” at the rally, she said, but he was not immediately classified as a “threat.”
“There were teams that were sent to identify and interview that individual,” she said, but they were unable to locate him before he opened fire.
Trump’s former physician said over the weekend that the Republican candidate sustained a two-centimeter (almost one inch) gunshot wound on his right ear that is starting to heal.
The memo from ex-White House physician Ronny Jackson, now a hardline right-wing lawmaker from Texas, was the first detailed account of the injury Trump sustained.
“The bullet passed, coming less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear,” said Jackson, who has been treating the former president.
Cheatle served as a Secret Service agent for 27 years before leaving in 2021 to become the head of security in North America for PepsiCo.
She was named to head the agency by President Joe Biden in 2022. – Chris Lefkow
© 2024 AFP
