Republicans in Congress are focusing on the role of the Secret Service, as frustration and anger grow over the agency’s response to the assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald Trump.
A House committee hearing is set for Monday to question Director Kimberly Cheatle — something House Speaker Mike Johnson said will be “must-see television” for Americans concerned about security breaches at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month.
“She has a lot of questions to answer. And these concerns are bipartisan,” Johnson told CNN.
Ms. Cheatle’s agency is tasked with protecting the president and his family, former presidents, people associated with the White House and other political candidates.
Republicans, who control the House, have united in calling for Ms Cheatle to resign – or be fired – after a 20-year-old gunman shot the former president in the ear at a July 13 rally.
Several lawmakers confronted her at the Republican convention last week, releasing videos of themselves demanding answers from her.
In a new interview with Fox News, Trump said no one warned him about the issue before the incident at the rally.
“Nobody mentioned it, nobody said there was a problem. I’ll wait 15 minutes, they could have said wait 15 minutes, 20 minutes, five minutes, whatever,” he said in a joint interview with vice presidential candidate JD Vance, scheduled to air in full on Monday.
“How did someone get on the roof and why didn’t anyone report it? Because everyone saw him on the roof.”
US media reported that Trump had sought additional security forces in the months leading up to the assassination, but the agency either refused or was unable to meet the requests due to staffing shortages. CBS News, the BBC’s news partner, reported that the former president’s frustrations with security had been building for two years.
“In some cases where specialized Secret Service units or resources are not available, the agency has made adjustments,” agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement. That includes relying on state and local law enforcement.
Eric Trump, the former president’s son, said he had called for increased security throughout the campaign, blaming the Biden administration and Ms. Cheatle for Sunday’s assassination and arguing there was “no accountability” for the agency’s actions.
“She should quit,” he told Fox News.
Speaking to CNN, Johnson said that in addition to the House hearing, lawmakers will release more details on Monday about the bipartisan task force convened to investigate the Secret Service’s response.
“The initial defense that [Ms Cheatle] “The errors that occurred last Saturday were unbelievable, so we will get into this,” he said.
Senators are also preparing to dig into the Secret Service.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson told Fox News on Sunday that he would soon release “preliminary” information from his own report into the investigation into the attack.
The report is intended to encourage people to come forward with more footage and firsthand accounts. He added that his investigation is now bipartisan and will be led by Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut.
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general is also investigating the attack, which came after the Secret Service identified the gunman as a suspect about 20 minutes before he opened fire, lawmakers revealed this weekend.
Johnson appeared on CNN just a day after reports emerged that senior Secret Service officials had turned down several requests from Trump’s security team for more resources in the two years leading up to the assassination.
The report was first published on Washington Postsaid the agency has turned down additional resources such as more secret agents and snipers because of a lack of resources and personnel within the Secret Service.
Mr. Johnson blamed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for not allocating more resources to the Secret Service, an agency it oversees.
The Republican House Speaker told CNN on Sunday that Congress has increased funding for DHS in recent years, but DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is responsible for ensuring the Secret Service has adequate funding.
“Secretary Mayorkas is in charge of that agency. If he needs to allocate more resources to the Secret Service, he should do so,” Johnson said.
Mr. Johnson added that he spoke with Mr. Mayorkas hours after the assassination and that the DHS leader could not answer “basic questions,” including whether the gunman, Thomas Crooks, used a drone to survey the outdoor protest area.
Law enforcement officials told US media on Saturday that Crooks had flown a drone over the site of the shooting.
Trump has made several appearances since the incident, including at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday, where he told the crowd he “took a bullet for Democracy”.
His former White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, issued a statement the same day saying the bullet had created a 2-centimeter-wide wound on Trump’s ear and that the wound was beginning to “heal normally.”
