House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) blasted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for testifying earlier this month that the agency “failed” to protect former President Donald Trump from an assassin’s bullet.
Speaking at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday, Comer said the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, was “preventable” because several agents, local police officers and rally attendees witnessed the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, climb onto the roof of a nearby building and open fire, hours before shooting President Trump in the ear, wounding two others and killing Fire Chief Cory Comperatore. “I am extremely grateful to each and every Secret Service agent who performed their job under immense pressure, but this tragedy was preventable,” Comer said. “The Secret Service has thousands of employees and a huge budget, but it has become a symbol of incompetence.” He joined House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) in calling for Cheatle to resign.
The Secret Service has a zero-failure mandate, yet failed on July 13 and in the days leading up to the rally. The Secret Service has thousands of employees and a large budget, yet it has now become a symbol of incompetence. The Committee has a long track record of oversight of the Secret Service. Our predecessors, Jason Chaffetz and Elijah Cummings, along with others, jointly issued warnings and recommendations to address apparent deficiencies.
We claim that the Secret Service is flawed in its composition and operations. Unfortunately, these warnings and recommendations have been ignored. A former president and current presidential candidate was shot in the head by a sniper within 500 feet of the podium. This is unacceptable and we are concerned that the Secret Service lacks the proper controls to protect its protectees from bad actors. The public is demanding explanations, but the Secret Service is not providing answers. Instead, new facts about the assassination attempt are learned every day from whistleblowers and leaks. The public is demanding accountability. Yet no one has been fired for this historic failure. Today’s witness, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, has been subpoenaed and is here to answer questions about how the agency abandoned the victims who attended President Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Director Cheatle, I firmly believe you should resign. But Director Cheatle is in complete defiance and claims she has no intention of resigning. So today she will be answering questions from members of this committee who are asking for clarity to the American people about how these events happened.
Check out the video above via Fox News.
