WASHINGTON – Members of Congress from both parties insulted US Intelligence Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday over the agency’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump and called on her to resign because they were dissatisfied with her testimony.
Nine days after a 20-year-old gunman used an AR-15 rifle to kill one rally-goer and wound two others at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a series of bipartisan investigations and actions have been launched to get to the bottom of the shooting that nearly killed the 2024 Republican presidential candidate. The gunman was killed at the scene.
“The Secret Service’s mission is absolutely flawless, but on July 13 and in the days leading up to the rally, it failed,” said James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, in his opening statement before the panel’s lengthy hearing on the attempted assassination.
“The Secret Service has thousands of employees and a significant budget, but it has become the face of incompetence,” said Comer, a Kentucky Republican.
Cheatle, who testified after Comer summoned themShe said the assassination attempt was “the Secret Service’s most serious operational failure in decades” and acknowledged that she had accepted responsibility and would continue to do so.
“I lead the agency and am responsible for finding out how this incident happened and making sure it doesn’t happen again,” she added.
Both parties critical in the survey
Republicans and Democrats expressed extreme dissatisfaction with Cheatle’s answers, with Comer and top Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin calling on Cheatle to resign. joint letter following the hearing.
The two said Cheatle had failed to “provide answers to basic questions about this appalling operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systematic errors and failures.”
Lawmakers questioned Cheatle about how the gunman was able to carry out the attack and get to the roof from which he fired, how Trump was able to take the stage while a “suspicious person” had been identified, and why she has not yet resigned from her post.
“Director Cheatle, because Donald Trump is alive – and thank God he is alive – you appear incompetent. If Donald Trump had been killed, you would have appeared guilty,” said Republican Representative Mike Turner of Ohio, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Cheatle’s statement
During the hearing, Cheatle stated that she would only answer questions that she could answer “due to the fact that several investigations are ongoing.”
However, throughout the hearing, Cheatle revealed that the Secret Service had been notified of a “suspicious person” “between two and five times” prior to the shooting.
“They’re just talking rubbish today. They’re just being completely dishonest,” said Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, as she asked Cheatle a series of yes or no questions, including whether this was a “colossal failure.”
Democrat Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico said Cheatle’s answers were “totally unsatisfactory.”
“How could this happen? … We need answers – not just for the family of the gentleman who was killed and for those injured, but we need answers for our democracy, because as others have said here today, we are in a highly politically charged environment right now,” she said.
Among the many MPs calling for Cheatle to resign was MP Byron Donalds, who said: “You must be fired immediately because this is blatant incompetence.”
“This is a joke. And, director, you are responsible and that is why you must go,” said Donalds, a Republican from Florida.
Republican Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan also expressed frustration with Cheatle’s answers.
“If you want to lead, you have to lead,” McClain said. “If you want to be in charge, then answer the questions or step aside and let someone with the courage and the guts to answer the American people the questions they deserve answers to.”
Cheatle also came under criticism after stating that the goal of an internal investigation was to complete it within 60 days – a timetable the committee disagreed with.
Cheatle noted that a number of Office of Inspector General investigations and ongoing FBI criminal investigations are still ongoing while the agency conducts its own internal investigation.
New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that there are only a little more than 100 days left until the November election.
“The idea that a report would be released within 60 days when the threat level in the United States – regardless of party – is so high is unacceptable,” she said.
Calls for gun control
Some Democrats, including Raskin, used the hearing to raise awareness about gun violence and pushed for a ban on AR-15s.
He mentioned another mass shooting on the same day as the attack on Trump killed four and at least 10 other people were injured at a nightclub in Birmingham, Alabama.
“That means, amazingly, that the Butler attack wasn’t even the deadliest mass shooting that took place in America that day,” he said. “We must find the courage and resolve to pass a ban on the AR-15 and other assault weapons.”
Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan pointed out that the committee did not hold a hearing this year on the “more than 260 mass shootings that have killed hundreds of people, injured hundreds more, and changed their lives forever.”
Further investigations
On Monday, members of the US House of Representatives Homeland Security CommitteeLed by Mark Green, a Republican from Tennessee, the committee visited the site of the rally. The committee also plans to hold a hearing on the assassination in Washington on Tuesday.
Republican Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, whose district includes Butler, was also present.
A suggestion, submitted by Kellyto establish a task force to investigate the attempted assassination is expected to be voted on in the House of Representatives this week.
It would investigate and fully review “all actions of all agencies, departments, officers and employees of the Federal Government, as well as state and local law enforcement agencies, or any other state or local government agency or private company or individual” in connection with the attempted assassination.
The task force will also submit a final report on its findings by December 13 at the latest.
Separately, President Joe Biden called on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to initiate an “independent security review” of the attempted assassination, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday convened a bipartisan commission to conduct a “45-day independent investigation” into the actions of the agency and state and local authorities before, during and after the July 13 rally.