Dems Turn on Secret Service Director: ‘Why Wasn’t the Event Paused?’

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) criticized U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle for the security failings during former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Cheatle appeared at a hearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday to testify about the assassination attempt on Trump. The hearing came more than a week after Trump’s July 13 rally where he was shot by a “bullet that pierced the upper part” of his right ear.

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Committee on Oversight and Accountability

During the hearing, Ocasio-Cortez criticized Cheatle that a timeline for a report on the investigation surrounding the security failings at the rally be released, and questioned Cheatle about why the Secret Service’s security perimeter was shorter than the range of an AR-15.

Frost questioned Cheatle about why the event had not been paused, despite receiving multiple warnings about Crooks prior to Trump taking the stage.

“How many times was the Secret Service alerted about a suspicious person at the July 13 campaign event prior to the first shot being shot?” Frost asked.

“I don’t have an exact number to share with you today. But, from what I’ve been able to discern somewhere between two and five times there was some sort of communication about a suspicious individual,” Cheatle responded.

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Committee on Oversight and Accountability

“To the Secret Service specifically?” Frost asked Cheatle, to which she confirmed:

According to reports, the shooter was photographed twice by security officers prior to the shooting. A police officer saw the shooter on the ground and reported him with a photograph as a suspicious person. Multiple local law enforcement officers identified the shooter, radioed that he was acting suspiciously near the events magnetometers. A local law enforcement tactical team saw the shooter on a roof and notified other security services, and also photographed him. One police officer who photographed the shooter saw him scoping out the roof and carrying a range finder.

“Why wasn’t the event paused right then?” Frost continued to ask Cheatle.

When Cheatle stated that she was “not clear on the timeline” of when the Secret Service and counter-sniper team were notified that there was a threat or suspicious person at the rally, Frost pointed out that she had previously said, “the Secret Service would have paused the rally if they identified a threat.”

Ocasio-Cortez also criticized Cheatle during the hearing, questioning her about whether there was a “standard perimeter” that the Secret Service had around events.

“Director Cheatle, is there a standard perimeter that the Secret Service establishes around an event, or are those perimeters independently determined per event and scenario?” Ocasio-Cortez asked.

Cheatle responded that the Secret Service had “no standard” perimeter for events and that each event and venue was “different.”

“So, each event has a different perimeter that is established depending on the logistics of that event,” Ocasio-Cortez responded. “Now, you established earlier that the building upon which the shooter operated from was outside of that established perimeter, correct, for the Butler, Pennsylvania event.”

When Cheatle confirmed, Ocasio-Cortez continued to ask how far away the building that the shooter had been on was from Trump.

Cheatle confirmed that the building was “approximately 200 yards” away from Trump.

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Committee on Oversight and Accountability

“Two hundred yards,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “Now, the individual used an AR-15 in order to act out his assassination attempt. An AR-15 has a range of about four to six hundred yards. My question is, why is the Secret Service protective perimeter shorter than one of the most popular semi-automatic weapons in the United States.”

In the aftermath of 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, opening fire at a Trump rally from the rooftop of a building where he had a direct line of sight of Trump, Cheatle has faced intense criticism and calls to resign over the security failings at the event.

Crooks had been able to position himself on the top of a roof less than 500 feet from Trump and was able to fire off eight bullets.

During an interview with ABC News, Cheatle admitted that agents had not been placed on the roof that Crooks had been on because of a “safety factor” associated with placing someone on a “sloped roof.”

Cheatle has also previously admitted that there had been police officers inside the building that Crooks was on top of.