Washington — Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is set to testify Monday before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about the security failures that allowed a 20-year-old gunman to open fire on former President Donald Trump and a crowd of his supporters at a rally more than a week ago.
Cheatle has come under significant pressure to resign in the aftermath of the assassination attempt, in which Trump and two others were injured and one rally attendee was killed.
The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the shooter, and he was killed by a Secret Service sniper. Lawmakers have questioned how Crooks was able to gain access to a rooftop so close to where Trump was speaking at the campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In prepared remarks set to be delivered at the start of the hearing, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer plans to tell Cheatle directly that she should resign and claim that with her at the helm of the Secret Service, it is questionable whether the president, first lady, White House and presidential candidates are safe.
“The Secret Service has a zero fail mission, but it failed on July 13 and in the days leading up to the rally,” Comer will say, according to excerpts of his opening statement. “The Secret Service has thousands of employees and a significant budget, but it has now become the face of incompetence.”
Cheatle, who has resisted calls to step down, will tell committee members that the Secret Service failed in its mission to protect the nation’s leaders on July 13 and take full responsibility for any security lapses. She was tapped by President Biden in September 2022 to lead the agency.
“We must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure an incident like July 13th does not happen again,” she will say according to excerpts from her testimony. “Thinking about what we should have done differently is never far from my thoughts.”
