‘This Was an Attempt to Hold Down the Resources’: Hawley Says Secret Service Director Lied to Congress

Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) argued that based on whistleblower testimony, now-former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle lied when she denied her agency withheld resources for former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, before an assassination attempt last month.

The Missouri Republican suggested a cover-up in the works regarding the matter.

“So what are these whistleblowers continuing to tell you, Senator?” FNC host Jesse Watters asked.

“Well, Jesse, what new whistleblowers tell me is that the leadership of the Secret Service told the agents who were advancing the Butler rally not to request additional manpower,” Hawley replied. “They said the same thing to the campaign. So, this directly contradicts, by the way, what the Secret Service Director told Congress. He said, oh, we never denied a manpower request. But what the whistleblowers say, Jesse is they told them ahead of time, don’t request more resources, don’t request counter-snipers, because if you do, we will deny it. Jesse, this is a lie. What the director told Congress is a lie. We need to know why are these guys lying to us and what are they hiding?”

“You know, government and how it works,” Watters said. “Why would they say ahead of time, don’t request this because we’re not going to give it to you? Because they didn’t want a paper trail.”

“Yes, I think that’s right,” Hawley responded. “I think they wanted to be able to say what the director did say to Congress, misleadingly, ‘Oh, we never technically, formally denied anything.’ Of course, that’s because they told them, in advance, don’t request it, because if you do, we won’t give it to you. This was an attempt to hold down the resources. This was an attempt to deny counter-snipers. Remember, they only finally got counter-snipers to come on the day, Jesse. Earlier, they had said no counter-snipers would be available. Can you imagine what would have happened if there had been no counter-snipers at all at this event?”

“No, I can, and I don’t want to imagine that,” Watters said.

“This is all an attempt to cover it up,” Hawley added.

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