Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle does not plan to resign, she told ABC News on Friday, rejecting calls from lawmakers that she resign after an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“I plan to stay in,” Cheatle said in an interview, which aired Monday afternoon on ABC News’ “World News Tonight.”
The Secret Service is under increasing pressure to explain what went wrong in the hours and minutes before a gunman opened fire in an attempt to kill former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
One attendee was killed and two were critically wounded before a sniper shot 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks on the roof of a building about 400 feet from the rally stage.
“The buck stops with me,” she said. “I’m the director of the Secret Service, and I have to make sure that we do a review and resource our personnel as needed.”
Cheatle told the ABC that “a very short amount of time” passed between when Crooks was identified as a potential suspect and when the gun was fired. He also said that the local police “are responsible for the perimeter of the building” above which Crook opened fire.
While some, including Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former Attorney General Bill Barr, asked for the resignation of Cheatle, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that there was “100% confidence” in the director of the Secret Service.
Cheatle said in a statement Friday that “the Secret Service is working with all federal, state and local agencies involved to find out what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent something like this from ever happening again.”
RNC protocol
The Secret Service did not substantially change the security plan for the RNC, which takes place from Monday to Friday, Cheatle said, despite the shooting on Friday.
“I am confident in the security plan that the RNC coordinator of our Secret Service and our partners have put in place, which has been reviewed and strengthened in the wake of the shooting,” Cheatle said.
US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle speaks during a press conference at the Secret Service’s Chicago Field Office, ahead of the 2024 Democratic and Republican National Convention, on June 4, 2024.
Kamil Krzaczynski Afp | Getty Images
On Sunday, RNC Secret Service coordinator Audrey Gibson-Cicchino also stood by the convention’s security plan, which she said had been developed for 18 months and was given the highest level of security.
He added firearms are not allowed on the convention floor or the Secret Service security perimeter.
Wisconsin is an open-carry state, however, which means firearms are allowed only blocks away from the RNC, outside the Secret Service’s cordoned area.
An ongoing investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is still in the midst of a post-mortem on Trump’s rally.
According to an update Monday, the FBI completed its search of Crooks’ home and vehicle and has so far conducted nearly 100 interviews with law enforcement personnel, rally attendees and other witnesses.
On Sunday, FBI officials said they believe the shooter acted alone.
FBI specialists gained access to Crooks’ phone and analyzed electronic devices. Based on a preliminary analysis of Crooks’ calls, the FBI still does not have enough information to identify his motive, a senior US law enforcement official told NBC News on Monday.
President Joe Biden also directed an independent review in coordination with the FBI’s criminal investigation.
A view of the home of Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who was named by the FBI as a “subject involved” in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, USA July 15, 2024.
Aaron Josefczyk Reuters
As the investigation continues and questions remain, donations have poured in to support the shooting victims, including from high-dollar donors.
An online fundraiser for victims set up by the Trump campaign has raised $4 million as of Monday from more than 50,000 donors. The list of top donors includes Citadel CEO Ken Griffin who made two donations totaling $100,000, a Citadel spokesperson confirmed to CNBC. Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman also confirmed a $10,000 donation to CNBC.
“We have committed the FBI’s powers to this investigation,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a phone call with reporters Sunday. “The American people can rest assured that we will leave no stone unturned as we work to find out what happened.”
Capitol Hill oversight
The Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies have been bombarded with questions about possible security breaches that may have led to the circumstances surrounding Saturday’s shooting.
Later on Friday, all 10 Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee requested a public congressional hearing with Cheatle, Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray in a letter to the committee’s chairman, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois.
They are the latest in a growing number of lawmakers calling for transparency about what law enforcement officials are doing about Saturday’s rally.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on Saturday called for Cheatle to testify at a congressional hearing on Monday, July 22.
“There are so many questions and the American people are asking for answers,” Comer said in a statement Saturday night, just hours after the shooting.
Former President Donald Trump looks bloodied on his face as he is surrounded by secret service agents as he leaves the stage at a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
Rebecca Droke AFP Getty Images
Comer was followed by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., who said he would launch his own investigation into how the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security coordinate security procedures.
“The seriousness of this security failure and this exciting time in our nation’s history cannot be understated,” Green wrote in a letter to Secretary Mayorkas on Sunday.
Green’s letter also echoed rumors that the Department of Homeland Security had rejected Trump’s request for additional security resources in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s rally. The Secret Service and Mayorkas have denied the claims.
“This is an untrue statement,” Mayorkas said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We have increased security for the former president starting at least in June. We have not received requests for additional security measures that were rebuffed.”
