The House Oversight Committee has been grilling Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle.
Hearings were wild because everyone wanted answers. She didn’t give anyone any, and her responses to questions were completely out of control.
I had reported on her insane response to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-IL. She said that the guy on the roof of the rally was not considered a danger. He was shocked that she would say such a thing. The rallygoers were on the ground pointing out the man, and the Secret Service knew there was a problem. But somehow, they didn’t see a man standing on a roof as a serious threat to stop the rally or prevent former president Trump from taking the stage. She was using word games to hide their lack of action.
Cheatle stonewalled throughout the hearing, but you knew she was in serious trouble when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-NY) wouldn’t have it. AOC claims that a 60-day report is not acceptable when immediate changes are needed to protect those who need to be protected. She calls former President Donald Trump “President”, as you would expect. In the past, many Democrats tried to avoid it in a petty way.
Even @AOC has had enough w/ @SecretService‘s excuses: “The notion of a report [on the Trump assassination attempt] coming out in 60 days, when the threat environment is so high in the United States, irrespective of party, is not acceptable” pic.twitter.com/KNRR2ItVmm
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 22, 2024
It is rare to hear the words “AOC has it right.”
AOC asked a great question regarding how the Service determined the perimeter since the AR-15 can shoot up to 600 yards while the shooter was within this range of 200.
AOC Unexpectedly Asks Secret Service Director a GOOD Question
This is a Matrix-like moment.
“The individual used an AR-15 in order to act out his assassination attempt. An AR-15 has a range of about 400 to 600 yards. My question is, why is the Secret Service protective… pic.twitter.com/oDvzA7yNdh
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) July 22, 2024
My question is: Why is the Secret Service protective boundary shorter than the one of most popular semiautomatic weapons used by Americans? And what I hear is that there was no perimeter established outside in an outdoor venue to prevent an AR-15 – one of the most common guns used in mass shootings – from being within range of Secret Service Protection.
She made a good point but didn’t receive a real answer. This was the way most of her questions went.
There were all kinds of problems: the determination of perimeter, what constituted a threat, the response to that “threat,” and more issues. Did they all just go wrong to endanger Trump? If you listened to Cheatle’s non-answers, the failure appeared to be even more problematic, and she/the Secret Service had bizarre judgments/reactions on each of these questions, as well as others.
All hearings should be conducted in this manner. It sounds like Cheatle will be fired, but we’ll see what Biden does after never holding anyone responsible for anything.