A group of GOP senators confronted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday evening, demanding she resign or answer their questions about security failures that led to Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, posted a video on X of an exchange she and other GOP senators had with Ms. Cheatle expressing their frustration at her leadership and refusal to answer questions.
The confrontation, which also included Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, came after Ms. Cheatle participated in separate virtual briefings with Senate and House lawmakers on Wednesday afternoon.
“Those of us on the call today felt very disappointed,” Mr. Barrasso said. “We didn’t get any of the responses that were necessary from you.”
Mr. Barrasso and Ms. Blackburn, who both called for Ms. Cheatle’s resignation after the briefing, said that several senators were still in the queue to ask questions on the call when the briefers ended the call and claimed there were no additional questions.
Ms. Cheatle responded that the Secret Service was running the call or facilitating the questions.
Mr. Barrasso told Ms. Cheatle he was “very disappointed” in her leadership and presented her with an ultimatum.
“Either resign tonight or start answering our questions right now about the death threat to President Trump and allowing him to go on stage in Pennsylvania at a time when you’d already been alerted that there was somebody with a spotter,” he said.
“All these situations already identified an hour before, and you let him go on stage without the knowledge of him, the team on the ground. And you put him within less than an inch of his life,” the Wyoming senator said on the video.
Ms. Cheatle and Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe had told lawmakers on the briefing that agents had flagged a suspicious person with a range finder and a backpack before the rally began.
That person later turned out to be 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fired multiple rounds at Mr. Trump and grazed the former president’s ear with a bullet. Cooks killed one rallygoer and critically injured two others before the Secret Service shot him dead.
“You knew an hour out you had a suspicious person. And at 5:51, according to the timeline of your deputy, you identified a potential threat. And then at 5:53, you told or someone told the [Secret Service counter] sniper that he was there. But can you give us an explanation, why would anyone allow the president to go on stage when you know that you’ve got a potential threat?”
Ms. Cheatle declined to answer.
“I don’t think this is the forum to have this discussion,” she said, telling the senators they were standing in a hospitality suite set up to thank the partners who helped provide security for the convention.
“I would not want to take away from their evening by ruining this,” she said.
Ms. Cheatle said she is “happy to answer questions” in an “appropriate forum.”
The senators said they would be glad to go elsewhere to talk. Ms. Cheatle then excused herself and started walking out of the suite.
“No, we’re going with you,” Mr. Barrasso said.
He and the other senators followed her out, trying to ask more questions but she just ignored them.
“No shame, no concern,” Mr. Barrasso said.
“You answer to us,” Mr. Cramer said. “This is exactly what you were doing today on the call.”
“This was an assassination attempt,” Ms. Blackburn said. “You owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers.”
“You cannot run away from your responsibility to the people of the United States,” Mr. Barrasso said. “You’re the head of the Secret Service.”
Ms. Cheatle did not respond to any of the comments as she moved through the venue with her own security detail until she escaped into a room into which the senators were not allowed to follow.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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