Explosive Testimony: US Secret Service Director’s Incompetence On Full Display During Trump Attack Hearing
In a dramatic House hearing, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle faced intense grilling from both Republicans and Democrats over her agency’s shocking failures during the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Lawmakers were outraged as Cheatle struggled to answer questions and admitted that crucial evidence, like radio communications, was missing. The drama reached a boiling point when Rep. Nancy Mace bluntly accused Cheatle of dishonesty. With the Secret Service’s credibility in tatters and Cheatle’s leadership under fire, the situation highlights a growing scandal that has exposed severe lapses in the agency’s ability to protect high-profile figures.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s appearance before the House today was a complete fiasco. She was grilled by both Republicans and Democrats regarding agency shortcomings that preceded the July 13th assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
A number of Republican lawmakers and one Democrat called for Cheatle’s resignation, citing her agency’s failure to meet its “zero-fail mission.”
Kimberly Cheatle testifies that the roof 150 yards from the podium was “outside of the perimeter": pic.twitter.com/cpJQ5Oufhz
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle: "The people that are in charge of protecting the President on that day would never bring the former President out if there was a threat that had been identified."
Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) once angrily said to Cheatle that she was “full of shit today” after Cheatle persisted in providing evasive or nonexistent responses to critical queries.
MACE: Okay. Is the Secret Service fully cooperating with our committee? Yes. Okay. You say you’re fully cooperating with this committee? On July 15th, this committee sent you a list of demands of information that we wanted. Has the Secret Service provided this committee a complete list of all law enforcement personnel that were there that day? Have you done that? Have you provided a list to the oversight Committee? Yes or no? I’ll have to get back to you on that. That is a no. Have you provided all audio and video recordings in your possession to this committee, as we asked on July 15th? Yes or no?
CHEATLE: I would have to get back to you.
MACE: That is a no. You’re full of shit today. You’re just being completely dishonest.
She also acknowledged that she conducted official business using encrypted apps on her personal phone.
Bloody Hell
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle just said that she uses encrypted apps on her personal cell phone to speak to colleagues in the federal government and overseas
Rep. Eric Burlinson is stunned, and states this might be a federal crime
Additionally, Cheatle did not present a chronology of events during the hearing.
NEW: Room starts cracking up after USSS director Kim Cheatle fumbles her words & claims she has a "timeline that does not have specifics" of the day Trump was nearly assas*inated.
MTG: "How did [Crooks] fly a drone over the rally area?"
In a comical conversation with California Democrat Ro Khana, Cheatle revealed that he was unaware that the director of the Secret Service had resigned during the Reagan murder attempt—despite Cheatle’s refusal to resign.
Omg Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle just got embarrassed by California Dem Ro Khanna for not knowing the history of the agency she runs
"You know what Stuart Knight did after [Regan's assassination attempt]?"
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced on Sunday night the creation of an independent review panel tasked with looking into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, which seemed to reveal an astounding level of incompetence on the part of the Secret Service. The announcement appeared to be timed to lessen the immediate pressure on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
About 12 hours before Cheatle’s 10 a.m. Monday testimony before the House Oversight Committee, which Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has hailed as “must-watch TV,” he made the unexpected revelation on Sunday night, telling CNN, “She’s got a lot to answer for.” These worries are shared by both parties. Representative Brendan Boyle, a Democrat from Pennsylvania and member of the Oversight Committee, has already called for Cheatle’s resignation, as seen by the following statement issued on Saturday:
“The evidence coming to light has shown unacceptable operational failures. I have no confidence in the leadership of the United States Secret Service if Director Cheatle chooses to remain in her position.
Clumsy under fire: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle infamously suggested there were no agents atop the building used by the Trump shooter because it had a “sloped roof at its highest point” (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
The panel’s establishment will provide Cheatle with a tenuous defense against Monday’s sharp inquiries concerning the Secret Service’s culpable acts and omissions in relation to the July 13 shooting at Trump’s rally that left three people dead and wounded, including Trump.
“We are committed to getting to the bottom of what happened on July 13,” said Mayorkas. “This independent review will examine what happened and provide actionable recommendations to ensure they carry out their no-fail mission most effectively and to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”
Mayorkas also asserted in his comments on Sunday night that the Secret Service is “the greatest protective service in the world,” which is a rather dubious claim. With that ill-timed chest-thumping, the survivors and victims of the shooting at Trump’s event would probably get into an argument. It’s also completely out of place considering that the panel he recently appointed ought to be able to come to a completely different decision, at least in theory.
"Our goal is a 30% female Secret Service by 2030" – Director Kimberly Cheatle
Fran Townsend, a homeland security advisor to President George W. Bush
Mark Filip, who was deputy attorney general to George W. Bush
David Mitchell, former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the State of Delaware
More horrifying details about how the Secret Service handled Trump’s event in Butler, Pennsylvania, are coming to light. The CIA was revealed as lying on Saturday after continuously denying that Trump’s campaign was not given the extra security resources it had sought, according to a Washington Post story.
The world found out on Friday that Thomas Crooks, a would-be assassin, had been able to fly a drone over the scene just hours before he opened fire. Drone flights are normally prohibited by the Secret Service in protected locations, although it’s unclear if this restriction was in place at least nominally imposed at the rally.
More than an hour before Crooks opened fire from a rooftop just 450 feet from Trump’s stage, he was labeled as a questionable person. He had already been seen carrying a duffel bag and holding a range finder at the time. Later, twenty minutes before chaos broke out, he was sighted on a rooftop. When it happened, female agents assigned to the security detail centered on DEI seemed to flinch from gunfire, even having trouble holstering a weapon.
Following the shooting, Cheatle’s credibility suffered when she told ABC that she didn’t know why a Secret Service agent wasn’t stationed atop the gunman’s preferred sniper nest.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.”
— 🇺🇸𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓭🇺🇸𝓗𝓪𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓸𝓷🇺🇸 (@Texas_jeep__guy) July 20, 2024
This utterly absurd justification contributed to the growing public opinion that the Secret Service had been severely undermined by the focus on filling positions with diverse candidates, such as Cheatle. “The initial excuses that [Cheatle] has given for the lapses that happened last Saturday are just unbelievable, so we’re going to get down to the bottom of it,” Johnson added.
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