A group of top Republicans on Capitol Hill have responded to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump during a Saturday afternoon campaign rally in western Pennsylvania by calling for Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle to be replaced.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told Fox News on Wednesday that he will “call for [Cheatle’s] resignation,” adding that he will create a congressional task force to consolidate investigations into the security failures around the rally that resulted in a 20-year-old gunman shooting and injuring three people, including the former president, and killing one attendee.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) agreed.
“I think she should,” Scalise said at a CNN-Politico event at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, when asked if Cheatle should step down.
The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny from lawmakers since the Trump rally shooting. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have raised concerns about the security measures or the lack thereof, aiming their frustrations mainly at the Secret Service — the entity that was responsible for securing the rally over the weekend.
Wednesday afternoon, in an attempt, seemingly, to ease concerns, Senate and House members received phone briefings from Cheatle, Secret Service Deputy Director Ron Rowe, FBI Director Chris Wray and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate. Senate Republican leadership only doubled down on calls for Cheatle’s resignation after the call.
“Last week’s near-assassination of former President Trump was a grave attack on American democracy. The nation deserves answers and accountability,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) posted on social media following the briefing. “New leadership at the Secret Service would be an important step in that direction.”
Senate GOP Conference Chair John Barrasso (R-WY) also called for Cheatle to leave her post, adding “this was a 100% cover-your-ass briefing.”
“Someone has died. The President was almost killed. The head of the Secret Service needs to go,” he said in a statement.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) also joined in the post-briefing calls for Cheatle’s resignation.
“Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle needs to step down immediately,” he wrote on social media.
Some angry Republican senators even aggressively confronted Cheatle at the RNC Wednesday night, demanding answers about the Trump rally shooting.
In a video posted on social media by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), senators including Blackburn, Barrasso and Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) were seen talking with Cheatle and then shouting questions at her when she tried to move away.
“I don’t think that this is the forum to have this discussion,” Cheatle can be heard saying, before quickly striding away.
Capitol Hill is also gearing up for investigations and hearings from several committees in both chambers to answer the mounting questions about what went wrong in Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon. House Republicans have already scheduled a hearing for next Monday and subpoenaed Cheatle to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee.
Both the chair and the ranking members of the Senate Homeland Security committee also announced a bipartisan investigation into the deadly incident earlier this week. Senate Judiciary, House Judiciary, House Homeland Security and House Intelligence Committees will also likely be involved in the probes into the rally shooting in the coming weeks and months.
The stopped clocks are, at this moment, correct. The shooting was a massive failure by USSS and the agency head should have resigned immediately.
More noise from a bunch of traitors who have worked very hard to ensure that weapons of war are legal and easy to access.
Who take no ownership of their own calls for violence and retribution.
Who look for opportunities to scape goat women and government.
And who would love to see the SS headless to create actual holes in security oversight so their fanatical cult followers have more opportunities to kill democratic politicians, judges, and voters.
Stay. What can they do other than huff and puff?
Call more bullshit hearings? They were going to do that anyway. Tell them to pound sand and get their lazy bums back to work.
Cheatle is just taking the usual GQP position of complete lack of personal responsibility for anything, ever. See also any Republican politician who’s ever fallen dick first into someone other than their wife.
The Secret Service is suspect since they erased all the text messages from January 6th. I don’t believe Biden trying to right the ship affected the Deep Trump people there or anywhere else n the Federal Government.
When they talk about the Deep State they are describing the people with integrity that will not roll over for them.
Worth mentioning these are the same people that said women couldn’t be in the Navy. My father was in charge of the first women in the Navy, and they did great. But there’s nothing like a barroom bloviator and their ‘common sense’.
Common sense is what you have when you know nothing about a subject, seek to learn nothing about a subject, then pat yourself on the back for not going to college.
Hey, what better way than a little “failure” to get your female director fired if you’re a MAGAt KKKult KKKristofascist KKKlown SS Agent who is beyond mindlessly pissed off that a woman is in charge of the outfit…