washington — The director of the U.S. agency charged with protecting the country’s president and former presidents admitted to the “most significant operational failure” in decades for the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle appeared before lawmakers Monday, nine days after a 20-year-old man climbed a roof adjacent to a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fired multiple shots, injuring the former president and two rally attendees and killing another man.
“We failed,” Cheatle testified. “As director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency.”
“I will move heaven and earth to make sure an incident like July 13 never happens again," she added.
Cheatle said a full accounting by the agency of its own failures would not be available for about 50 days, and repeatedly declined to answer questions, citing the ongoing internal investigation.
She also raised the ire of both Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee by refusing to resign.
"Because Donald Trump is alive, and thank God he is, you look incompetent," said Republican Representative Mike Turner, who also chairs the House Intelligence Committee.
"If Donald Trump had been killed, you would have looked culpable," Turner added. “Not only should you resign, but if you refuse to do so, President [Joe] Biden needs to fire you."
Democrats on the committee were also incensed.
"This relationship is irretrievable,” said Oversight Committee ranking member Representative Jamie Raskin, joining a formal call by the committee’s chairman, Representative James Comer, for Cheatle to step down.
“I think the director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment," Raskin said. "We need to very quickly move beyond this."
Cheatle defended her decision to stay on at the agency despite the failure to protect former President Donald Trump from harm at the Pennsylvania rally.
"Like every Secret Service agent, we don't shirk our responsibilities," she said. "I will remain on and be responsible to the agency, to this committee, to the former president and to the American public."
Details on precisely why a would-be assassin was able to get within 140 meters (150 yards) of Trump with a straight line of sight, however, were scarce.
Cheatle did not provide answers on how the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to climb the roof of a building adjacent to the Trump rally on July 13 without being stopped, why Secret Service agents were not positioned on the building, or why the rally was not stopped after Crooks was identified as a suspicious person well before Trump took the stage.
“Those are absolutely questions that we need to have answers to,” she said.
During questioning, the Secret Service director confirmed reports that Crooks was seen with a range finder, an optical device used to measure distances, prior to the shooting. But, she said, "at a number of our sites, especially when you're at outdoor venues, a range finder is not a prohibited item."
She also said that while Crooks was identified as a suspicious person, he was not characterized as a threat and that agents were not aware he had a weapon.
“If the [protection] detail had been passed information that there was a threat, the detail would never have brought the former president out on to the stage," she said.
The Secret Service director sought to refute some rumors and conspiracy theories, saying the evidence suggests the shooter acted alone.
Cheatle likewise dismissed media reports that requests from Trump’s team for additional security had been denied.
"For the request in Butler, there were no requests that were denied," she said, while being questioned.
"A denial of a request does not equal a vulnerability," she added. “In generic terms, when [protection] details make a request, there are times that there are alternate ways to cover off on that threat or that risk."
Monday’s hearing is just the first of several Congressional efforts to examine how the Secret Service failed to prevent the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
The director of the FBI, which is conducting its own investigation into the attempted assassination, is set to appear Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee.
The Secret Service is responsible for protecting President Joe Biden, Trump and 34 other individuals, as well as visiting foreign dignitaries, Cheatle told lawmakers.
The agency has about 8,000 employees, including uniformed officers and special agents. Cheatle said the goal is to hire another 1,000 people “in order to meet future and emerging needs.”
U.S. national security and law enforcement officials have been warning for years that the country is facing a heightened threat landscape.
Public assessments have warned the greatest threats come from lone offenders or small groups, often driven by a variety of personal grievances.
The most recent public assessment, issued this past September, also warned attacks could be directed at "government officials, voters, and elections-related personnel and infrastructure, including polling places, ballot drop box locations, voter registration sites, campaign events, political party offices, and vote counting sites."
