Members of Congress on Monday heaped scorn on U.S. Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle during more than four hours of angry questioning and louder bipartisan calls for her to step down because of security failures involving the July 13 assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer and ranking Democrat Jamie Raskin were among the Congress members who urged Cheatle to resign during the first congressional hearing since the attack on Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. "Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures," the lawmakers wrote in a letter published after the hearing.
Cheatle sought to make a distinction between suspicious behavior and a direct threat, saying the Secret Service would have "Paused the rally had they known there was an actual threat." The elite agency's failure to grasp the threat worried lawmakers in both parties, who said the agency's 60-day internal investigation would take too long to deliver answers.
Cheatle would not say how many agents were assigned to Trump that day but said the number was "Sufficient." Cheatle also did not say whether the Secret Service deployed a drone to monitor the area.
As the tone of the hearing grew more heated, one exasperated Republican lawmaker, Rep. Pat Fallon, derisively told Cheatle to "Go back to guarding Doritos." Cheatle worked as a top security official at Pepsi Co. North America, which manufactures the snack food, beginning in 2021 before she was sworn in as Secret Service director in September 2022.
Rep. Jim Jordan grew impatient with Cheatle as he cited a Washington Post report that the Secret Service has repeatedly turned down the Trump campaign's requests for additional protection at campaign events.
Some Republican members started shaking their heads and audibly saying "No" when Cheatle declined to say whether Secret Service agents were positioned on the roof used by the attacker.
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