WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will face lawmakers Monday on Capitol Hill over the agency’s failure to properly protect former President Donald Trump from an attempted assassination.
Lawmakers from both political parties, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, are calling for Cheatle’s resignation.
While Cheatle has conducted closed-door interviews over the past week, she will testify publicly under oath Monday, directly answering questions from the House Oversight Committee.
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Trump’s requests for increased security denied in the past
The hearing comes as the Secret Service backtracked over whether it previously denied Trump campaign requests for more security.
Cheatle acknowledged that over the last few years, there were instances where requests for security details were denied largely due to a lack of resources.
However, the director noted that the USSS did not deny any of Trump’s requests for more security at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman opened fire on Trump. One rally attendee was killed and two others were hospitalized.
The former president said in a recent interview with Fox News that he wasn’t warned about the threat on the day of the shooting.
“No, nobody mentioned it. Nobody said there was a problem, and I would’ve waited for 15. They could’ve said, ‘Let’s wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 5 minutes.’ Something. I think that was a mistake,” Trump said.
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Secret Service performance under review
An independent commission will review the performance of the Secret Service before, during and after Trump’s assassination attempt.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the bipartisan commission members, including former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and several advisers to former President George W. Bush.
The panel will have 45 days to review the planning actions of the Secret Service, state and local authorities during the rally.
In a statement, commission members said, “We formed this bipartisan group to quickly identify improvements the U.S. Secret Service can implement to enhance their work. We must all work together to ensure events like July 13 do not happen again.”
