The more information that comes out, the more questions that arise, Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX), member of the House Oversight Committee, told Breitbart News Daily ahead of the highly anticipated hearing Monday featuring U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle more than a week after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“The thing that’s so troubling about this — and I think it’s what’s troubling the American people — is the more we know about it, the more questions we have,” he remarked. “It’s not like it’s, you know, the lack of security. And for her to say, ‘Oh, this is never going to happen again,’ that’s not the job description. This is the job description. … This is a never fail situation here. You can’t just say, ‘Well, we’ll get it right next time.’ No, that’s not this job description. You got to get it right every time.”
Some of the disturbing details coming to light, he said, include the fact that the Secret Service was apparently aware of a threat eight minutes before former President Donald Trump even took the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“We heard from a briefing while we were at [the] convention, she [Cheatle] gave a bipartisan briefing over the phone just on what details were available, and the notable thing that came out of that is that they knew at least eight minutes before President Trump took the stage that there was this guy, and he was a potential suspicious character walking around with a rangefinder,” he said, noting it gets worse.
“Come to find out, you know, this morning, we’re looking at the news, and there’s photos allegedly that were taken and handed to the Secret Service even an hour before, potentially an hour before, he came on to the stage,” Cloud said, noting the absurdity of having Secret Service investigating themselves.
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“And so, you know, what’s really troubling is you shouldn’t have the same people who had the failure investigating the failure because, no doubt, there’s a little bit of covering your rear going on as they investigate these sorts of things, and even if there weren’t, it’s not a way to be transparent before the American people. We need to have a lot more independent investigation going on. And certainly, she shouldn’t be leading it,” he said of Cheatle, blasting her “lame excuse” for why that roof was not covered during the rally.
“There’s apparently repeated calls for more staffing on the detail, and it seems like that didn’t happen as well. Again, why the timeline keeps changing is concerning. You know, there’s just so much of what’s going on. Who knew? One of the things I want to find out is more details on the planning. Does she approve the security plan? Who all got a copy of it?” he asked.
“You know, these kind of things. And so, we’re definitely still at the asking questions phase of this. But what we know right now is just not — it’s only caused us to be even more concerned,” he added, expressing the need for an investigative process that the American people can trust.
“And so, when you have people who already have an incentive in the investigation, that doesn’t lead to results that the American people can trust,” Cloud said. “And so, this is the situation that we find at this point.”
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