By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle rebuffed bipartisan calls to resign for security failures that allowed a would-be assassin to wound Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and rankled lawmakers by refusing to provide details about the incident.
The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee’s Republican chair, James Comer, and top Democrat, Jamie Raskin — normally bitterly divided on most issues — each called on Cheatle to step down.
“This committee is not known for its model of bipartisanship, and I think today we came together unanimously in our disappointment,” Comer told Cheatle. “We don’t have that confidence that you can lead.”
Raskin said Cheatle had “lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country, and we very quickly need to move beyond this.”
During more than 4-1/2 hours of often contentious proceedings, Cheatle called the July 13 shooting “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades,” comparing the breakdown to the 1981 attempted assassination of former President Ronald Reagan.
But she repeatedly rebuffed calls to step down, saying at one point: “I think that I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.”
Monday’s hearing marked the first round of congressional oversight of the attempted assassination at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was wounded in the ear, one rally attendee was killed and another injured. The suspected shooter, 20-year-old nursing home aide Thomas Crooks, was killed by law enforcement. It is not clear what his motive was for the shooting.
On Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray will appear before the House Judiciary Committee. House Speaker Mike Johnson is also due to unveil a bipartisan task force to serve as a nexus point for House investigations.
In the face of Republican claims that the Secret Service denied resources to protect Trump, Cheatle said security for the former president had grown ahead of the shooting.
“The level of security provided for the former president increased well before the campaign and has been steadily increasing as threats evolve,” Cheatle said.
She added that the Secret Service provided the security sought by the Trump campaign for the rally.
But Cheatle repeatedly declined to answer questions from openly frustrated Republicans and Democrats about the security perimeter, what officials knew of potential threats and the decisions they made, and the suspicious behavior of the suspect.
“Tell us what went wrong,” Republican Representative Pete Sessions implored her. “Tell us, and don’t try and play a shell game with us.”
Cheatle said she wanted to provide factual information but cited multiple ongoing investigations, including an internal probe due to be completed within 60 days.
Lawmakers of both parties rejected the idea of a 60-day delay and accused Cheatle of stonewalling Congress.
“The notion of a report coming out in 60 days when the threat environment is so high in the United States, irrespective of party is not acceptable,” bristled Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
(Reporting by David Morgan; additional reporting by Bo Erickson, Allende Miglietta and Nathan Layne; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Diane Craft)
