WASHINGTON – House Speaker Mike Johnson and other top Republicans are calling for the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatley, days after a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania.
“I’m going to call for his resignation,” Johnson, R-La., told Fox News on Wednesday at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “Look, I find this unforgivable. … According to his explanation to the media, there was a bend in the roof, so there was a safety concern – it doesn’t wash. I think he has shown what his priorities are.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Johnson’s top lieutenant, called for Tetli’s resignation Tuesday.
Johnson’s call for resignation came hours before top law enforcement officials briefed House and Senate lawmakers in separate, unclassified virtual briefings on the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. rally participants. One spectator was killed and two were seriously injured. Trump was injured in his right ear.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Director Paul Abbate and Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe are on the list of participants in the briefing. Cheatle appeared on the Senate shortlist, not the House shortlist.
The House Oversight Committee said it plans to subpoena Cheatle if he refuses to attend Monday’s public hearing on the security breach.
In an interview with Fox News, Johnson said he would create a special House task force to investigate the shooting and security breaches when lawmakers return on Monday to facilitate multiple congressional investigations.
“The reason we do it this way is because it’s a more accurate shot. It’s faster, there aren’t a lot of procedural hurdles, and he’ll also have subpoena power for this task force,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be Republicans and Democrats to get to the bottom of this quickly so the American people can get the answers they deserve.”
Lawmakers have many questions about Saturday’s stunning assassination attempt. Most critical, perhaps, is that the roof of the building, located within 150 yards of Trump, is not secured by either the Secret Service or local law enforcement. They also want to know why Secret Service snipers on another roof didn’t contact the shooter until Crooks fired multiple times.
talking to ABC News This week, Cheatle said he would not resign, but said: “The look is stopping with me. I am the director of the Secret Service.”
He said the Secret Service was responsible for securing the inner perimeter of the rally, while local law enforcement was responsible for the area outside the rally, including the building Crooks entered. Cheatle, a Republican, told ABC News that the building Crooks climbed had a “sloped roof at its highest point” and “we wouldn’t want to put somebody on a sloped roof.”
Cheatle experienced inconsistencies in his public appearances. Cheatle told ABC News that local police were inside the building where the gunman opened fire after exiting the roof. A Secret Service official told NBC News on Wednesday that the local SWAT team was not in the building, but instead in another building in the same complex.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told NBC News on Wednesday that Cheatle was referring to the AGR Glass “building,” a large manufacturing complex of interconnected residential units.
This raises new questions about the level of planning and communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement officials, and whether a local team is in the best position to protect the outer perimeter or whether a local sniper team can better see the area. used if the shooter was in a building looking down from the roof.
Johnson told Fox News that he spoke to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the phone “within hours” of Saturday’s shooting, and that he “didn’t get satisfactory answers at that time.” he said he also spoke with FBI Director Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
“Answers are not expected. I think they’re gathering information. We’re going to do the same. We have to take responsibility for that. It was inexcusable,” Johnson said. “Obviously, there were security flaws. You don’t need to be a special operations expert to figure that out, and we’ll get to the bottom of it quickly.”
Ali Vitaly, Frank Thorpe W and Julie Tsirkin contributed.