Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has no intention to resign, citing the need for a “continuity of operations,” that allowed former President Donald Trump’s would-be assassin to slip through the cracks.
“Continuity of operations is paramount during a critical incident and U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has no intentions to step down,” Secret Service Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement Wednesday.
Guglielmi has been peddling the statement to various outlets, including The New York Times, The Hill, and Fox News. But he neglected to explain why it is so vital to continue the operations, which left gaping holes in security at Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, rally July 13. There, a shooter wounded the former president and two attendees, killing father and firefighter Corey Comperatore.
If the current operations leave Trump and other candidates vulnerable, it is unclear why they should continue without substantial changes.
Negligent Security
Security at Trump’s Butler rally raised far more questions than the Secret Service has answered.
Democrats had been pushing to strip Trump’s Secret Service protection months before the assassination attempt. His security detail had been asking for increased resources for weeks, only to be denied by the Department of Homeland Security. Guglielmi claimed this was false.
The DHS also denied Secret Service protection to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. until the attempt on Trump’s life.
During the Butler rally, the Secret Service reportedly drew resources from Trump’s already-limited security team in order to staff a nearby Jill Biden event. Guglielmi denied this also.
Officials drew the security perimeter to exclude the building that the would-be assassin used, leaving a clear line of sight from the rooftop to Trump.
Cheatle, previously in charge of guarding Pepsi facilities, said officials did not place snipers on the shooter’s roof because it was “sloped.” This excuse drew immediate criticism, with many pointing out that the shooter’s roof was nearly flat and that snipers at the rally were stationed on a sloped roof. A former roofer called Cheatle’s explanation “ridiculous.”
Local police told the Secret Service beforehand they did not have enough manpower to secure the shooter’s building. Still, a police officer saw the shooter with a rangefinder, and reported this to the command center. He also radioed that the shooter was climbing the building with a backpack.
Secret Service agents spotted the shooter on the roof 20 minutes before the assassination attempt, according to ABC News. Rally attendees noticed the shooter, pointing and shouting to nearby law enforcement.
Trump continued speaking, uninterrupted. Then shots rang out.
The bullet narrowly missed Trump’s head, grazing his right ear. The former president ducked. Secret Service agents dove on top of him, stood him up on stage, and ushered him to his vehicle — his head unprotected.
Meanwhile, one female agent fumbled with her holster, another took time to put her sunglasses back on, and another stumbled back and forth.
“It’s hard not to use the word ‘failure’ when the person you’ve been given the mission and the privilege and the responsibility to protect is whisked off the stage bleeding from a gunshot wound,” former Secret Service Agent Ken Valentine told The Federalist previously.
The courage to jump in front of bullets and place another’s safety above one’s own is rare. But the events leading up to and during the assassination attempt call into question the Secret Service’s procedures.
Rebuffing Accountability
Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is ready to call for Cheatle’s resignation, he said to Fox News on Thursday.
When Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., confronted Cheatle at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, the Secret Service director ran away.
“This was an assassination attempt,” Blackburn said, following Cheatle. “You owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers.”
Guglielmi said in a statement Wednesday that Cheatle “deeply respects members of Congress” and is “fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews.”
Chair of the House Oversight Committee James Comer, R-Ky., issued a subpoena Wednesday to compel Cheatle to show up for a scheduled hearing on the assassination attempt on July 22, according to The AP.
Comer did this to “head off any attempt by DHS to backtrack on her appearance,” House Oversight Committee Spokeswoman Jessica Collins said Tuesday.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, also announced an investigation Wednesday into the “monumental security failure” that allowed the assassination attempt. He sent letters to the Secret Service, DHS, DHS Office of Inspector General, Department of Justice, and FBI requesting “records and responses.” He called the current lack of information “unacceptable.”
