Secret Service chief will be questioned over security failures before Trump assassination attempt
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Director of the Secret Service will testify before a congressional committee on Monday amid growing calls to impeach her over security concerns at a rally where a 20-year-old gunman tried to kill former president Donald Trump.
The House Oversight Committee hearing will be Kimberly Cheatle’s first appearance before lawmakers since the July 13 shooting in Pennsylvania that left one bystander dead. Trump was wounded in the ear and two other attendees were injured after Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed onto the roof of a nearby building and opened fire.
Lawmakers have expressed anger over the way the shooter could get so close to the Republican presidential candidate, when he should have been carefully guarded. Secret Service has acknowledged that some of the Trump campaign’s requests for increased security at his events in the years leading up to the attempted murder.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has called what happened a “failure,” while several lawmakers have called on Cheatle to resign or President Joe Biden to fire her. The Secret Service has said Cheatle has no plans to resign. So far, she retains the support of Biden, a Democrat, and Mayorkas.
Before the shooting, local law enforcement officers had seen Crooks walking along the perimeter of the rally and looking through the lens of a rangefinder toward the rooftops behind the podium where the president later stood, officials told The Associated Press. An image of Crooks was circulated by officers stationed outside the security perimeter.
Witnesses later saw him climb onto the side of a low production building 157 yards (135 meters) from the stage. He then readied his AR-style rifle and lay on the roof, with a detonator in his pocket to detonate crude explosives hidden in his car parked nearby.
The attack on Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It was the latest in a series of security lapses by the agency that have prompted investigations and public criticism over the years.
Authorities are hunting for clues about what motivated Crooks, but have so far found no ideological leaning that could explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone photos of Trump foundBiden and other top administration officials, and also found that he had looked up the dates for the Democratic National Convention and Trump’s appearances. He also looked for information about the Great Depression.