The US Secret Service acknowledged Monday, during a congressional hearing, that its services had “failed” in their mission to protect Donald Trump, who was targeted on July 13 in Pennsylvania by an assassination attempt, while rejecting calls for his resignation.
“The solemn mission of the Secret Service is to protect our nation’s leaders … On July 13, we failed,” Director Kimberly Cheatle told the House Oversight Committee.
“As director, I take full responsibility for any security failures,” she added, calling the events targeting the former US president and the current Republican presidential candidate “the most significant operational failure of the US intelligence community in decades.”
Since July 13, his service, responsible for protecting high-ranking American figures, has faced criticism over possible failings and human failings. And calls for Mr.me Cheatle, appointed in 2022 by President Joe Biden, came from both sides of the political spectrum.
The latter dismissed this idea, assuring: “I think I am the best person to lead the secret service at the moment.”
She also refused to answer many specific questions from lawmakers about the attack, saying several investigations were ongoing.
“I can only speak in general terms,” she said, to the frustration of both Republican and Democratic members of the committee.
The investigations are intended to determine how a shooter was able to end up on the roof of a building with a semi-automatic rifle, less than 150 meters from the stage where Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the northeast of the country.
“Incompetence”
The 78-year-old former US president was slightly injured in the ear in the shooting. Photos of him with blood running down his face and his fist raised went viral. One bystander was killed and two others were seriously injured.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot dead by Secret Service officers 26 seconds after the first of eight shots he fired.
This weekend, US media reported that the Secret Service had rejected requests to increase Donald Trump’s security in the past.
This service is responsible for the security of the president, vice president, former presidents and their families, as well as major candidates in elections and foreign heads of state visiting the United States.
At the start of the hearing, the chairman of the committee, Republican James Comer, said that this “tragedy was avoidable” and said he was convinced that Kimberly Cheatle “must resign.”
“The Secret Service has no right to make any mistakes in its missions, but they failed on July 13 and in the days leading up to the rally” in Pennsylvania, he added.
According to him, the service, which “has thousands of employees and a large budget”, has now become synonymous with “incompetence”.
A former Trump White House physician said over the weekend that the ex-president has a two-centimeter wound on the top of his right ear that is beginning to heal.
“The bullet came within an inch of entering his head,” said Ronny Jackson, now an ultraconservative Texas congressman who said he has been treating the Republican candidate since the assassination attempt.
