MILWAUKEE — House Speaker Mike Johnson is demanding that President Biden fire US Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, accusing her “ineptitude” of nearly leading to the assassination of former President Donald Trump last Saturday.
Johnson (R-La.) told Fox Business Thursday morning that following a briefing with Cheatle and FBI Director Christopher Wray House lawmakers were no closer to uncovering the reasons for security lapses that gave Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, a clear line of sight to open fire at Trump during the Butler, Pa., rally.
“I’m prepared this morning to call on President Biden to fire Director Cheatle,” the House speaker said, adding that neither she nor Wray gave “satisfactory answers to some very important questions.”
“Yesterday I said that she should resign. It’s clear that she has no intention to do so, but the oversight here, the mistakes, the ineptitude – whatever it is – was inexcusable,” Johnson added.
“We almost lost the life of a former president. And I think there has to be accountability and it begins at the top. This is ridiculous.”
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement that “Cheatle has no intentions to step down.”
“She deeply respects members of Congress and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews,” Guglielmi added.
House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Thursday sent a letter to Wray revealing that Secret Service whistleblowers disclosed to the committee that officials were aware five days before the rally that the agency and security partners had “limited resources” to cover it and another July 13 event in Pittsburgh with first lady Jill Biden.
The FBI and a Secret Service spokesman declined to comment on the letter.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) had blasted the “massive security failure” that led to the near-assassination of the 45th president in a Wednesday statement — and called for Cheatle’s immediate resignation as well.
“The Director of USSS and Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security have abysmally failed to deliver immediate transparency and answers that are owed to the American people,” Stefanik said.
Johnson on Wednesday announced the creation of a task force that would uncover every fact about the assassination attempt, as both House and Senate lawmakers have expressed frustration with getting almost no details from the Department of Homeland Security or FBI, which is the lead agency investigating the incident.
“I had [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas] on the phone within hours of the event last Saturday because the buck stops at his desk, ultimately,” Johnson also said Thursday on Fox Business. “He did not have a lot of information.”
“What we’ll do with this task force is go and get those answers from Mayorkas, from Cheatle, and everybody involved,” he added, noting that the FBI confirmed Crooks “acted alone.”
US officials learned of an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump weeks before Crooks fired the shots that struck the Republican nominee’s right ear, killed rallygoer Corey Comperatore and wounded two others at the Pennsylvania campaign event.
The House Oversight, Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees are each investigating aspects of the shooting, with Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) calling Cheatle’s leadership “a total failure” and issuing a subpoena for her testimony at a public hearing July 22.
Cheatle dodged four senators on Wednesday night after being confronted in a suite at the Fiserv Forum during the Republican National Convention.
“Every one of us had questions that we wanted to ask. We thought we didn’t get any of the responses that were necessary,” said Senate Republican Conference chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
“Either you resign tonight or start answering our questions right now about the death threat to President Trump and allowing him to go on stage,” he added.
“I don’t think that this is the forum to have this discussion,” Cheatle replied. “This hospitality suite is actually to thank the partners who have helped secure the Republican National Convention.”
Barrasso and GOP Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said that she, Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe Jr. and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate had divulged alarming security oversights on the call.
Those details included that Crooks scouted the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds where the rally was held days beforehand — and had been flagged as “suspicious” by the Secret Service at least an hour before he clambered onto the roof of a building 130 yards away and took aim.
“This was an assassination attempt, you owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers,” Blackburn yelled at Cheatle as she and the other senators chased the Secret Service director.
“You cannot run away from your responsibility to the United States,” Barrasso insisted, while another shouted: “You answer to us.”
The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.