Photo: Screenshot via PBS livestream on YouTube
After multiple hours of beating around the bush, Kimberly Cheatle, Director of the Secret Service, has left Americans more uncertain than they were before the House hearing on the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump.
At a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, Trump was almost killed on stage by 20-year-old Thomas Crooks. This is the first time an incident like this has happened since the attempted assassination of former president Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Crooks killed one man and injured two others before being neutralized by law enforcement.
Cheatle was called to resign by multiple representatives during the hearing, if she is not fired by the president before that.
“We’re waiting for your letter of resignation and you really need to consider doing that before you leave today,” said Representative Taylor Greene (R-Georgia).
Cheatle stated multiple times that she wanted to ensure she was giving truthful answers, as the investigation is currently being conducted by the FBI, but did not answer a majority of the questions asked by Congress and continuously referred them to the FBI.
Cheatle said the investigation would be concluded within the next 60 days.
“With the election nearly 100 days away, that is an unacceptable timeline and makes people less safe. It also allows my colleagues across the aisle, Republicans, additional time to spread dangerous misinformation which also puts people in harm's way,” said Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts).
Even though the shooter was spotted by the Secret Service with a rangefinder on the roof, making him a possible threat, Trump was still able to go on stage, according to Representative Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee). “You are a DEI horror story,” he said.
Cheatle made the distinction between “suspicious” and “threat” multiple times when asked about why the shooter was not stopped sooner, and why the activity was not taken seriously.
“As a civil rights lawyer I have learned so many times in having to deal with law enforcement that there usually is not a perception of a threat when it is a young, white, male, even if they are carrying a long gun,” said Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) referring to bias training and whether it was included in Cheatle’s budget or not.
Trump has received foreign and domestic threats, classifying his rally as a “high risk” event, according to Representative William Timmon (R-South Carolina), suggesting more precautions should have been taken, especially at an open-air, outdoor fairground.
In previous interviews, Cheatle claimed there was no security on the roof where the shooter set up camp because it was unsafe for security to be on a roof that is slanted, but there were snipers on more slanted roofs than the one that was not secure, according to Representative Pat Fallon (R-Texas).
“It wasn’t the roof that was dangerous, it was the nut job on top of the roof,” said Fallon.
Cheatle claimed there was an overwatch in place, but could not give names of those individuals, or other security on other duties at the time of the incident, in “this setting”.
“We need answers for our democracy,” said Stansbury.
Representative Daniel Goldman (D-New York) called out Cheatle being under oath in front of Congress and having fewer answers for them than the media.
Representatives were hoping to get answers from Cheatle to set the story straight for the public about the “major security failure”, but she was unable to do so.
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