As Congress prepares to investigate security failures around the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump last week in Pennsylvania, members of Congress from across the country say Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle must resign immediately.
Cheatle, a graduate of Eastern Illinois University, is under fire after the attempted assassination of Trump. While Trump came away from the shooting with a wounded ear, one spectator died and two others were critically injured.
Video from Wednesday evening at the Republican National Convention surfaced of several members of congress asking questions of Cheatle, who said that was not the appropriate venue to provide answers. Cheatle was then chased by the congressman before ducking into a door protected by a security detail.
After the Illinois GOP breakfast in Milwaukee on Thursday as part of the RNC, Illinois U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, said the failures around the shooting are mounting and unacceptable.
“Their primary is their primary,” Bost told members of the media. “They should never care about what their party is. They should never care about how they feel about the particular candidate. Their job is to protect their primary.”
From the RNC, Illinois U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, said what happened is a national embarrassment and sends a bad signal to foreign adversaries.
“We’re going to create a task force, an independent, hopefully bipartisan commission that will quickly get assembled,” LaHood told The Center Square. “We need to have subpoena power. We need to get to the bottom of this.”
A U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing to investigate the attempted assassination was already set to open Monday. A task force would be in addition to that.
LaHood said as a member of the Intelligence Committee, they had a classified briefing with the Secret Service leadership and he has zero confidence.
“The core agents, the Secret Service agents that are out there are good law enforcement agents,” LaHood said. “I think we haven’t had good leadership at the top.”
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pennsylvania, said the Secret Service hasn’t been forthcoming and is making excuses.
“‘The roof was sloped, oh, that was the responsibility of local police and the state troopers,’ come on. The Secret Service is responsible for protecting the president,” Meuser told The Center Square in an interview from the RNC.
Trump, who secured the nomination at the RNC, gave his first speech since the shooting Thursday night in Milwaukee. He previously praised the Secret Service in the aftermath of the shooting.
