Update (1558ET): Today's hearing in front of the House was a complete disaster for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle - as both Republicans and Democrats grilled her over agency failures leading up to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump July 13th.
Numerous Republican and at least one Democrat lawmaker demanded that Cheatle resign from her position, saying that her agency fell short of its "zero-fail mission."
In one heated exchange, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told Cheatle that she was 'full of shit today,' after Cheatle continued to give vague, or no, answers to pointed questions.
MACE: Okay. Is the Secret Service fully cooperating with our committee? Yes. Okay. You say you’re fully cooperating with this committee? On July 15th, this committee sent you a list of demands of information that we wanted. Has the Secret Service provided this committee a complete list of all law enforcement personnel that were there that day? Have you done that? Have you provided a list to the oversight Committee? Yes or no? I’ll have to get back to you on that. That is a no. Have you provided all audio and video recordings in your possession to this committee, as we asked on July 15th? Yes or no?
CHEATLE: I would have to get back to you.
MACE: That is a no. You’re full of shit today. You’re just being completely dishonest.
Perhaps most stunning was an admission that the Secret Service has no recordings of radio communications from the 13th.
She also admitted to using encrypted apps on her personal phone to conduct official business.
Cheatle also failed to bring a timeline of events to the hearing.
When asked if the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was acting alone - Cheatle deferred to the FBI.
In a hilarious exchange with California Democrat Ro Khana, Cheatle didn't realize that the Secret Service director during the Reagan assassination attempt quit (while Cheatle refuses to step down).
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Watch Live (due to start at 10amET):
In a move seemingly timed to ease the immediate pressure on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday night announced the formation of an independent review panel charged with examining the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, which appeared to illuminate an astonishing degree of Secret Service incompetence.
The unusual Sunday night announcement came about 12 hours before Cheatle's 10 am Monday appearance before the House Oversight Committee, which Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has touted as "must-watch TV," telling CNN, "She's got a lot to answer for. And those concerns are bipartisan." Underscoring that notion, Oversight Committee member and Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle has already demanded that Cheatle resign, via a statement released Saturday:
"The evidence coming to light has shown unacceptable operational failures. I have no confidence in the leadership of the United States Secret Service if Director Cheatle chooses to remain in her position.
The creation of the panel will give Cheatle a flimsy shield she can use to try deflecting Monday's pointed questions about the Secret Service's damning actions and inactions surrounding the July 13 shooting at Trump's rally that wounded Trump and two spectators and killed a third.
“We are committed to getting to the bottom of what happened on July 13," said Mayorkas. "This independent review will examine what happened and provide actionable recommendations to ensure they carry out their no-fail mission most effectively and to prevent something like this from ever happening again.”
In his Sunday night statement, Mayorkas also made the deeply dubious assertion that the Secret Service is "the greatest protective service in the world." The victims and surviving family members of the shooting at Trump's rally would likely quarrel with that poorly-timed chest-thumping. It's also wildly inappropriate given the panel he just appointed should be at least theoretically free to reach an entirely different conclusion.
That panel has been given 45 days to perform its review. While new experts may be added shortly, it initially has four members:
Obama Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
Fran Townsend, a homeland security advisor to President George W. Bush
Mark Filip, who was deputy attorney general to George W. Bush
David Mitchell, former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the State of Delaware
Damning information about the Secret Service's handling of Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania continues to emerge. On Saturday, the agency was caught in a lie: Having repeatedly denied that Trump's campaign was denied additional security resources it had requested, the agency was exposed as having done just that, via a report from the Washington Post.
On Friday, the world learned that would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was able to fly a drone over the event site just a few hours before he opened fire. The Secret Service typically bans drone flights at secured sites; but it's unclear if such a prohibition was at least nominally imposed at the rally.
Crooks was identified as a suspicious individual more than an hour before he opened fire from a rooftop only about 450 feet from Trump's podium. At the time, he'd already been observed in possession of a range finder and carrying a duffel bag. Later, he was spotted on a rooftop 20 minutes before all hell broke loose. As it did, female agents assigned to the DEI-focused protective detail appeared to falter under fire -- even struggling with holstering a weapon.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Cheatle's credibility took a sharp downturn when, asked why no Secret Service agent was posted atop ideal sniper roost used by the shooter, she told ABC:
"That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof."
That flatly ridiculous rationale fueled a brewing public perception that an emphasis on stocking the Secret Service with diversity hires -- including Cheatle -- had greatly weakened the agency. "The initial excuses that [Cheatle] has given for the lapses that happened last Saturday are just unbelievable, so we're going to get down to the bottom of it," said Speaker Johnson.
You can watch Cheatle's 10am Monday appearance before the House Oversight Committee here. She'll try dodging the fusillade of rhetorical bullets fired her way from both sides of the aisle, but could emerge more bloodied than Trump.
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