(ConservativeFreePress.com) – On Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle admitted the agency failed to protect Trump.
Cheatle made the admission during an exceptionally contentious congressional hearing, where Democrat and Republican lawmakers demanded her resignation over the security failures that led to a gunman being able to scale a roof 200 yards away from former President Donald Trump and open fire at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally.
In Cheatle’s first congressional hearing over the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life, the Secret Service Director repeatedly angered lawmakers by attempting to evade questions, citing the ongoing investigation into the assassination attempt.
However, Chceatle could admit that the assassination attempt on Trump was the agency’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.
She also acknowledged that local law enforcement notified agents about the suspicious person, later identified as the gunman, approximately two to five times before the shooting.
The Secret Service Director stated she takes “full responsibility” for the lapse in Security and vowing to “move heaven and earth” to guarantee something like that doesn’t occur again.
Cheatle acknowledged, “The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed.”
The Secret Service director also confirmed reports that Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin, had been spotted by local law enforcement before the shooting. Law enforcement saw him with a range finder — a device in appearance similar to binoculars but that hunters use to measure their distance from a target.
However, she claimed the Secret Service would have acted by halting the rally if they were notified of an “actual threat,” stating there was a difference between someone identified as suspicious and someone considered a threat.
When lawmakers queried why Secret Service agents weren’t on the rooftop the gunman used and whether agents used drones to monitor the area, Cheatle replied that she was waiting for the internal investigation to conclude — a statement that ignited jeers from committee members.
However, the most damning statement from Monday’s committee hearing came from Republican Representative Mike Turner (Ohio), who noted that because “Trump is alive,” Cheatle only appeared “incompetent,” had he been killed, she “would look culpable.”
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