Lawmakers from both parties on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee — which is known for its fiery hearings and partisan rhetoric — expressed exasperation, frustration and at times disbelief at Cheatle’s testimony, increasing calls for her resignation.
“This committee is not known for its model of bipartisanship,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the panel’s chair. “We came together unanimously in our disappointment for your lack of answers.”
Cheatle, who has been in her role for less than two years, admitted the assassination attempt against Trump was the “most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.”
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed,” she said in her opening remarks. “As a director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency.”
But her resistance to providing details about the shooting and the Secret Service’s actions — she at one point said, “I have a timeline that does not have specifics” — will raise new questions about how long she’ll remain in her job.
Several Democrats on Monday joined the calls for her to resign, including Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the panel’s top Democrat.
“I don’t want to add to the director’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, but I will be joining the chairman in calling for the resignation of the director just because I think that this relationship is irretrievable at this point,” Raskin said.
“And I think that the director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country. And we need to very quickly move beyond this.”
Cheatle repeatedly declined to get into specifics about the investigation into how 20-year-old suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to gain access to and open fire from a nearby roof shortly after Trump started speaking at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pa. The former president was injured, one rally attendee was killed, and two others were severely injured.
Republicans were at times bombastic in voicing their displeasure with Cheatle. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said she was “full of s‑‑‑.” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) asked Cheatle if she had Alzheimer’s disease or dementia because she could not recall all the details.
At one point, Cheatle’s response about not having a specific timeline of events for the hearing drew exasperated laughter from lawmakers.
But Democrats, too, expressed irritation with Cheatle’s replies.
Cheatle explained that her seeming reticence was because she did not want to provide incorrect information, citing multiple ongoing investigations with the Department of Justice, multiple inspector general offices, in Congress, and internally.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
