Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) confronted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle about the failures that led to the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, Breitbart reported. She was joined by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) as the pair peppered Cheatle with questions amid calls for Cheatle to resign.
Blackburn and Barrasso descended on Cheatle at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday. They wanted her to answer for the failures that led to the attempt on Trump's life at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
"This was an assassination attempt. You owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers," Blackburn can be heard telling Cheatle near the end of the clip shared to X, formerly Twitter.
🚨FULL VIDEO: Secret Service Director REFUSES to answer to the American people. pic.twitter.com/MPVOke5zhY
— Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) July 18, 2024
The American people are still reeling from the assassination attempt that narrowly missed killing Trump. The ease at which shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to move into position and pull the trigger has many crying foul.
House and Senate lawmakers were briefed separately by Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Deputy Director Paul Abbate about what led to the shooting. Cheatle participated in the one for the Senate that "was a cover-your-ass briefing by the Secret Service," Barrasso said to NBC News after the meeting.
Crooks had reportedly surveyed the venue days before the rally. On the day Trump was to speak, law enforcement spotted the would-be assassin acting suspiciously an hour before the event began, suggesting that there was plenty of warnings about him that went unheeded.
"The director of the Secret Service needs to go," Barrasso said. "That shooter was identified as a suspect, a suspicious character, a full one hour before the shooting occurred," Barrasso pointed out.
"Had a range finder, a backpack, and then they lost sight of him and never really followed up on that. This was an hour before," the Wyoming Republican charged.
Blackburn and Barrasso weren't alone in demanding accountability given the amount of errors that led to the shooting. On Wednesday, House Oversight Chairman James Comer announced that he would be issuing a subpoena to Cheatle.
The Kentucky Republican will compel her to testify on Monday in a public hearing about the incident. Johnson is also setting up a task force to investigate possible failures, including Cheatle's job performance leading up to the event.
"The reason we’re going to do it that way is because that is a more precision strike. It goes quicker, there’s not a lot of the procedural hurdles, and it will have subpoena authority for that task force as well," Johnson explained.
"It will be compiled of Republicans and Democrats to get down the bottom of this quickly so the American people can get the answers that they deserve," he promised. For her part, Cheatle has said, "The buck stops with me. I am the director of the Secret Service."
The lawmakers who confronted Cheatle had every right to do so on behalf of the American people. This was a horrific event, and we deserve answers as to how Cheatle and others let it happen.
