by Debra Heine
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about the security failures that led to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life.
On July 13, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Several bullets passed within millimeters of Trumps head, at least one grazing his ear. Two rallygoers were hurt, and Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief, was tragically killed by stray bullets while shielding his wife and daughter.
Cheatle failed to provide requested materials to the Committee ahead their hearing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green reported on X, Monday morning.
“We requested audio recordings from July 13 and names of SS detail names and Kimberly Cheatle has not turned any of it in to us for the Oversight Committee Hearing today,” Taylor-Green reported on X, Monday. “She also did not submit her testimony to our committee, but somehow Punchbowl is reporting excerpts.”
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in his opening remarks that he didn’t think the director deserves to maintain her position as head of the Secret Service, “but members and the American people will make their own decision based on her answers today.”
In her opening statement, Cheatle acknowledged that the assassination attempt on Trump’s life was “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.” She also offered her condolences to the family of Cory Comperatore.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” Cheatle is expected to tell lawmakers, according to prepared remarks reviewed by CNN. “As the Director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse.”
The agency, Cheatle said “must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure an incident like July 13th does not happen again. Thinking about what we should have done differently is never far from my thoughts.”
Cheatle added that she would “move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13 does not happen again.”
The SS Director refused to answer basic questions asked by Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), citing the agency’s “ongoing investigation.”
“At any point, did Secret Service have an agent on top of the roof?” Comer asked.
“We’re only nine days out from this incident and there is still an ongoing investigation,” Cheatle replied.
“Can you answer why you didn’t place an agent on that roof?” Comer asked.
“We’re still looking,” Cheatle said.
The Director told Comer that the building the gunman used to shoot President Trump was “outside the perimeter” for Secret Service.
The building was only 150 yards away with a direct line of sight to Trump.
“During the investigation, that is one of the things we want to look at and determine whether or not other decisions should have been made,” Cheatle said.
“It looks like you won’t answer some pretty basic questions,” Jordan told Cheatle after she refused to answer whether Trump was denied additional Secret Service protection. “It looks like you got a nine percent raise and you cut corners when it came to protecting one of the most well-known individuals on the planet. A former president.”
Democrats, predictably, used the hearing as a platform to push for more gun control.
Livestream video of the hearing below:
– – –
Debra Heine reports for American Greatness.
