Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told President Joe Biden’s Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle, “You are a complete failure at your job,” before asking Cheatle point blank, “Was there a stand down order?” and “Was there a conspiracy to kill President Trump?”
Rep. Greene grilled Cheatle during Monday’s House Oversight Committee hearing on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, demanding to know how shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to fly a drone over the fairgrounds of Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Watch Below:
“I would have to go back and check the timeline of when that took place,” Cheatle responded, to which Rep. Greene asked, “Do you have a timeline at all? From any of the day?”
“I have a timeline that does not have specifics,” Biden’s Secret Service director replied.
Rep. Greene reacted, saying, “That’s shocking. That is absolutely unacceptable,” which elicited laughter among people in the hearing.
“That means that you are a failure at your job,” the congresswoman added.
Rep. Greene then noted that “backpacks, bags, bicycles, firearms, any type of weapon or any other item determined to be a potential safety hazard, like a rangefinder,” are prohibited at Trump rallies.
The congresswoman then laid out the timeline that she herself had:
At 5:10 p.m. Crooks is first observed by one of the snipers — sniper one. President Trump was shot in the face at 6:11 p.m. At 5:28 p.m. sniper one takes a picture of bicycle and two bags. Those belong to Crooks. At 5:32 p.m., sniper one spots Crooks looking at his phone and using a rangefinder. At 5:55 p.m. Butler [Emergency Service Unit] command confirms receipt of photos and states they have been relayed on. At 6:05 p.m. sniper one later communicates that Crooks is seen moving northeast in direction of Sheets and that Crooks has a backpack. Two minutes before the shooting, while President Trump has been allowed to take the stage, people see Crooks laying on his stomach in a sniper position on the roof, and they’re yelling, “He has a gun.” And they are trying to alert law enforcement and Secret Service.
“Why was Crooks not shot by the snipers? Why was he allowed to be there?” Rep. Greene asked.
Cheatle responded, saying, “As soon as the individual was identified as a threat, they were–” before the congresswoman interjected, saying, “No, no, no. What do you consider to be a threat?”
“A man with a gun laying in a sniper position? A man that had a backpack, a man that had a bicycle, a man that had a rangefinder. At what point is he determined a threat?”
The Secret Service director replied by dodging Rep. Greene’s question about a man laying in a sniper position, instead opting to cherry-pick from the congresswoman’s mention of a backpack and rangefinder.
“An individual with a backpack is not a threat,” Cheatle said. “An individual with a rangefinder is not a threat.”
Rep. Greene then asked, “What about a man laying on a building that has direct line of sight of President Trump, with a gun, that people are screaming [about] and pointing out, is that a threat?” to which Cheatle replied, “Once that individual was identified, they were neutralized.”
“No, Crooks was neutralized after he shot President Trump in the face,” Rep. Greene noted. “Is he only a threat once he fires the weapon?”
Cheatle responded by dodging the question, saying, “As soon as the counter sniper identified that individual, they were able to neutralize them.”
“People under your command did not consider him to be a threat, yet people in the crowd knew he had a gun and considered him to be a threat,” Rep. Greene said. “That means that you are a complete failure as the director of the Secret Service.”
“That people under your command don’t perceive a man laying on a roof with direct line to the president, with a gun — they don’t perceive that to be a threat, yet the people in the crowd do. How is that possible?” the congresswoman asked.
Cheatle replied by claiming she was “not certain” how information from the people in the crowd was given to law enforcement.
“No, everyone knew,” Rep. Greene reacted. “The people there knew that there was a danger. They knew there was a threat to President Trump, and it was allowed to happen.”
The congresswoman then asked Cheatle point blank, “Was there a stand down order? Was there a conspiracy to kill President Trump?” to which the Secret Service director replied, “Absolutely not.”
“Then how did this happen? And why are you still sitting here not turning in your letter of resignation?” Rep. Greene asked.
“We are waiting for your letter of resignation, and you really need to consider doing that before you leave today,” she added.
As Breitbart News reported, the Secret Service chief was subpoenaed following her failure to prevent Thomas Matthew Crooks from shooting at Trump on July 13 during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Cheatle, whom Biden appointed in August 2022 and who reports to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas — who has been impeached — is facing calls for her resignation but said that she has no intention of stepping down.
Notably, it was recently reported that top officials within the Secret Service denied requests to increase security for Trump over the past two years.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.