Washington — Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday about the security failures that allowed a 20-year-old gunman to open fire on former president donald trump and a group of supporters at a rally over a week ago.
Cheatle has come under intense pressure to resign following the assassination attempt, which left Trump and two others injured and one participant in the rally is killed.
The FBI identified Thomas Matthew Crooks as the shooter, and he was killed by a Secret Service sniper. Lawmakers have questioned how Crooks was able to gain access to a rooftop so close to where Trump spoke at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told Cheatle directly that she should resign. He said that with her at the helm of the Secret Service, it is questionable whether the president, the first lady, the White House and the presidential candidates are safe.
“The Secret Service has a zero fail mission, but it failed on July 13th and in the days leading up to the rally,” Comer said in his opening statement. “The Secret Service has thousands of employees and a significant budget, but has now become the face of incompetence.”
Cheatle, who has resisted calls to resign, told committee members that the Secret Service failed in its mission to protect the nation’s leaders on July 13 and said she bears full responsibility for any security shortcomings.
“We must learn from what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13 does not happen again,” she said in her opening statement. “Thinking about what we should have done differently is never far from my mind.”
Here’s the latest from the hearing: