The News
The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump was the US Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades, the head of the agency testified to Congress on Monday.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said she would “move heaven and Earth” to ensure that a similar event does not happen again, and expressed her condolences to the family of victim Corey Comperatore, an attendee who was killed in the shooting at the July 13 Trump rally near Butler, Pennsylvania.
“Thinking about what we should have done differently is never far from my thoughts,” Cheatle said, while adding that she was “proud beyond words” of Trump’s personal detail, which shielded him during the rally, and the counter-sniper team that killed the gunman.
Both Republicans and Democrats have slammed the agency for allowing the 20-year-old gunman to climb a nearby building with an AR-15 rifle, despite him being flagged by the Secret Service as a person acting “suspicious” just 20 minutes before the shooting. The director differentiated between someone perceived as a “threat” and someone “acting suspicious,” saying, “If the detail had been passed information that there was a threat, the detail would never have brought the former president out onto stage.”
Cheatle has said she will not resign despite growing calls for her to step aside from lawmakers.
Cheatle said that Trump’s request for additional Secret Service personnel for the July 13 were provided, but she did not directly address if the agency had previously denied other rally requests and had instead used local law enforcement resources, as CNN previously reported.
“There are a number of ways that threats and risks can be mitigated through a number of different assets,” she said.