US Secret Service chief set for grilling by Congress over Trump shooting

[July 22, 2024]  By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will undergo a grilling on Monday at a congressional hearing into her agency's failure to prevent a would-be assassin from wounding Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump earlier this month.

Cheatle is due to appear before the House of Representatives Oversight and Accountability Committee at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) to be questioned by lawmakers. The Secret Service chief faces calls for her resignation from top Republicans including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

On Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray will appear before the House Judiciary Committee.

The July 13 shooting at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, wounded Trump in the ear, killed one rally attendee and injured another. The suspected shooter, 20-year-old nursing home aide Thomas Crooks, was killed by law enforcement.

The incident has angered lawmakers, who say the suspect was able to get within range of Trump on the rooftop of a nearby building because of security lapses at Cheatle's agency, which is charged with protecting presidents and former presidents.

The House Judiciary Committee said last week that it has evidence the Secret Service was not properly resourced for Trump's rally, because of staffing shortages created by a rival campaign event in Pittsburgh with first lady Jill Biden and a NATO summit held days before in Washington.

President Joe Biden on Sunday ended his floundering reelection bid, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him as candidate. He vowed to serve through the end of his term on Jan. 20, 2025.

Johnson initially called on Cheatle to resign, then said Biden should fire her a day after she and Wray briefed members of Congress on the shooting.

The speaker has also said he plans to set up a bipartisan House task force to investigate the attempted assassination.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle speaks during a news conference to review a U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) report on "mass attacks in public spaces," which examines targeted violence from 2016-2020 at the National Press Club in Washington, U.S., January 24, 2023. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

Republican Senators John Barrasso and Marsha Blackburn also confronted Cheatle by shouting at her on the floor of the Republican National Convention last week, only to be ignored. "She can run. She cannot hide," Blackburn said afterward.

But so far, Cheatle has defied calls for her departure.

"Continuity of operations is paramount during a critical incident and U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has no intentions to step down," said Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.

"She deeply respects members of Congress and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews."

Republican Senator Marco Rubio said the Secret Service's handling of the Trump rally and the aftermath of the shootings provide "a prime example" of how not to proceed on such matters.

"Every day that goes by and we don't have clarity on all of this is one more day that you are giving people doubts about the very institution," Rubio told reporters.

(Reporting by David Morgan; additional reporting by Nathan Layne; Editing by Scott Malone,Alistair Bell and Diane Craft)

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