The attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump was the biggest Secret Service failure in decades and no one has been held accountable for it, director Kimberly Cheatle told Congress.
A would-be assassin fired several bullets at Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania earlier this month. The Republican presidential candidate narrowly escaped death, but two people were injured and one was killed.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed,” Cheatle told the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
“I take full responsibility for any security lapse,” Cheatle told lawmakers, describing the Butler shooting as the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”
Most Republican lawmakers and at least one Democrat noted that the Secret Service director had resigned following the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, so Cheatle’s interpretation of “full responsibility” seemed unusual at the very least.
Cheatle vowed to cooperate with the investigation into what happened and move “heaven and Earth” to ensure it doesn’t happen again, but revealed under oath that not a single Secret Service employee has been disciplined or dismissed over the Butler incident.
“I have full confidence in the men and women of the Secret Service. They are worthy of our support in executing our protective mission,” Cheatle told the members of Congress.
“I think that I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time,” she said at another point in the hearing.
Pressed to clarify her remarks about the “sloped roof” given to ABC News last week, Cheatle said that the Secret Service “prefer to have sterile rooftops,” but was “still looking into who was going to provide overwatch.”
Citing the ongoing investigation, Cheatle declined to answer just about all the lawmakers’ questions about the attempted assassination. She would not disclose how many shells were found on the roof of the building from which the assassin – identified as Thomas Crooks – fired, or whether the Secret Service had an agent on that roof at any point, or why not.
Cheatle also claimed that the Secret Service detail wouldn’t have allowed Trump to take the stage if they had knowledge of a “threat,” and not just a suspicion.
“You’re full of sh*t today,” Congresswoman Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, said at one point, triggering objections from House Democrats about decorum.
“After leaving the oversight briefing this morning, I’m more convinced than ever that Crooks wasn’t working alone,” Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, said on X (formerly Twitter).
The FBI is currently leading a criminal investigation into the attempted assassination, the Homeland Security inspector-general has opened three separate investigations into what happened, and a congressional inquiry appears to be in the works as well.