WASHINGTON (AP) — The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump was the Secret Service's "most significant operational failure" in decades, Director Kimberly Cheatle told lawmakers Monday as calls mounted for her to resign.
In the first congressional hearing over the shooting at a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, Cheatle said she took "fully responsibility" for the security lapses, and she vowed to "move heaven and earth" to make sure there's no repeat of it.
"The Secret Service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. On July 13th, we failed," Cheatle said.
Lawmakers have been expressing anger over how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded. Lawmakers peppered Cheatle with questions about why she should be allowed to keep her job and why Trump was allowed to take the stage after local law enforcement had identified the man as suspicious.
Asked about why there were no agents on the roof where the shooter was located or if the Secret Service used drones to monitor the area, Cheatle said she is still waiting for the investigation to play out, prompting groans and outbursts from members on the committee.
"Director Cheatle, because Donald Trump is alive, and thank God he is, you look incompetent," said Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio. "If he were killed you would look culpable."
Trump was wounded in the ear, and two other attendees were injured after Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed atop the roof of a nearby building and opened fire.
The Secret Service has acknowledged it denied some requests by Trump's campaign for increased security at his events in the years before the assassination attempt. But, Cheatle said that there were "no assets denied" for the Trump rally on July 13.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has called what happened a "failure" while several lawmakers have called on Cheatle to resign or for President Joe Biden to fire her. The Secret Service has said Cheatle does not intend to step down. So far, she retains the support of Biden, a Democrat, and Mayorkas.
Before the shooting, local law enforcement had noticed Crooks pacing around the edges of the rally, peering into the lens of a rangefinder toward the rooftops behind the stage where the president later stood, officials have told The Associated Press. An image of Crooks was circulated by officers stationed outside the security perimeter.
Witnesses later saw him climbing up the side of a squat manufacturing building that was within 135 meters (157 yards) from the stage. He then set up his AR-style rifle and lay on the rooftop, a detonator in his pocket to set off crude explosive devices that were stashed in his car parked nearby.
The attack on Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It was the latest in a series of security lapses by the agency that has drawn investigations and public scrutiny over the years.
Authorities have been hunting for clues into what motivated Crooks, but so far have not found any ideological bent that could help explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone found photos of Trump, Biden and other senior government officials, and also found that he had looked up the dates for the Democratic National Conventional as well as Trump's appearances. He also searched for information about major depressive order.