US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has acknowledged that the agency failed in its mission to prevent the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump but rejected bipartisan calls for her resignation.
During a contentious hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Cheatle said the Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect the nation’s leaders.
Cheatle said the attack on Trump, who was slightly wounded in his right ear while speaking at a campaign rally, was “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.”
Both Republicans and Democrats called on Cheatle to resign and she drew the ire of lawmakers from both parties by refusing to provide specific details about the attack, citing the existence of multiple active investigations.
Opening the hearing, Republican committee chairman James Comer said “this tragedy was preventable” and “it is my firm belief, Director Cheatle, that you should resign.
He said the Secret Service has a zero-fail mission, but it failed on July 13 and in the days leading up to the rally, adding that the agency has become the face of incompetence.
But Cheatle rebuffed the demands, saying, “I think that I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.”
She said the Secret Service was alerted two to five times ahead of the shooting about a suspicious individual at the rally, but he was not immediately classified as a threat.
The 20-year-old gunman opened fire on Trump with an AR-style assault rifle just minutes after the former Republican president and current White House candidate began speaking at the campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The gunman, perched on the roof of a nearby building, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper less than 30 seconds after firing the first of eight shots.
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