Watch Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle squirm as she is brutally grilled in Congress over Trump shooting security failure
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was accused of being 'full of s***' and giving less answers than a toddler as she was ripped to shreds by lawmakers during a grilling over Donald Trump's assassination attempt.
Furious Democrats and Republicans peppered the embattled Cheatle with questions about how would-be assassin Thomas Crooks, 20, was able to open fire on the former president and told her to resign.
She avoided directly answering questions about whether she denied Trump a bigger protection detail, whether she focused on diversity and inclusivity during hiring, and doubled down on not having an agent on the gunman's roof during the brutal hearing on Capitol Hill.
In a staggering moment, Cheatle also admitted that her agents on the ground had been warned between two and five times how many times a 'suspicious person' was reported before Trump took the stage.
Cheatle insisted she is the still the best person to lead the scandal-hit agency, even though she admitted 'full responsibility' for the massive security failure that led to Trump's shooting on Saturday July 13.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle sat for hours before the House Oversight Committee on Monday to testify about the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. As Democrats and Republicans piled into her, they grew frustrated, at times shouting, in response to her vague and incomplete answers
'You're full of s*** today,' Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. yelled at Cheatle when the Secret Service boss didn't know whether the agency has provided evidence to the committee. 'You're just being completely dishonest.'
The South Carolina Republican also ripped into Cheatle for not providing her opening statements in advance of the hearing, though it was published in multiple news outlets hours before she testified.
The director said 'I have no idea how my statement got out,' to which Mace sternly retorted, 'That's bulls***.'
But Cheatle did not just get yelled at by Republicans.
'You cannot go leading a Secret Service agency when there is an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate!' and incredulous Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Cheatle during his questioning.
'I believe, Director Cheatle, that you should resign. I think there are colleagues on both sides of the aisle that believe that and I hope you'll consider it.'
During the interaction, Cheatle quietly fiddled with a writing utensil, maintained a somber expression, occasionally looked down and then back up at the lawmaker addressing her.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner told Cheatle to her face she 'looks incompetent.'
'Donald Trump is alive and thank God he is,' he said. 'You look incompetent.'
'If Donald Trump had been killed, you would have looked culpable. There is no aspect of this that indicates that there has been any protection to Donald Trump.'
She repeatedly avoided answering questions by invoking how 'we're just nine days out from this incident and there is still an ongoing investigation.'
Possibly most disappointing to the lawmakers was Cheatle's answer to how long the American people must wait to have answers on the assassination attempt on Trump.
She said that the agency expects to have answers for lawmakers within '60 days.'
This answer was so horrendous that it brought together two lawmakers on near ideological opposites - Squad Leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and conservative firebrand Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. - together in a rare agreement .
They called the 60 day wait period unacceptable.
'You're not making this easy for us,' Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, said in an exasperated fashion after Cheatle refused to disclose figures related to the investigation.
Chairman Comer grew so irate at one point he pointedly reminded the director that she is compelled to answer questions under a subpoena.
'You answered more questions with an ABC reporter than you have with members of Congress,' the chairman said.
'You're here with a subpoena, and we expect you to answer the questions,' he continued.
Cheatle looks down at notes while listening to questions from lawmakers
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., gets more answers from his kids when they are in trouble than Cheatle has provided at the entire hearing.
'I would get more answers from them than I am getting from you right now,' he said disappointedly.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., asked if Cheatle would have submitted her resignation if Trump were killed.
She refused to give a straight answer, saying 'I think that I've admitted that I've taken accountability and will take responsibility.'
The Florida Democrat asked her if all the weapons in the U.S. were 'rocket propelled grenades' would that make her job harder.
'Yes,' she responded.
Her finally answering a question, albeit a farfetched hypothetical, elicited a cheer from the room after hours of failing to draw out new information about the assassination attempt.
Getting her to answer a question was, apparently, a victory.
Shockingly, it was highlighted how the shooter was identified as a 'suspicious' person up to five times before he took fire.
'Ma'am, you are a DEI horror story,' Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said to Cheatle.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., was so fed up with Cheatle's non-answers and misdirection that she called for perjury charges to be brought against the Secret Service director.
'It is very frustrating ... that you have been up here basically stonewalling our ability to get answers to the American people.'
'Every single member of Congress does not feel safe with you in charge,' Luna continued.
'We're all sitting ducks with you directing the Secret Service currently.'
Evidence that the hearing did not go well for the director, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., joined Comer - the top Republican - to call for Cheatle's resignation concluding the event.
Still, Cheatle has repeatedly refused to resign.
