Some House Democrats used their time during Monday’s House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to push for gun control measures in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
The would-be assassin used an AR-type rifle and fired eight shots at Trump, including one bullet that penetrated the top of his right ear.
Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) barely mentioned the shooter in his opening statement. In contrast, he used the term “AR-15” nearly 10 times and said mass shootings with AR-15s were an issue at hand.
“I wanted to discuss guns, which is one of the root causes of political violence.”
“Weapons capable of being used to carry out a mass shooting at an event fully protected by the Secret Service and dozens of state and local police are clearly an intolerable threat to our fellow citizens who do not have such protection and do not belong in our communities,” Raskin said.
Even though the shooter used his father’s AR-15, Raskin still called for universal background checks and closing the gun show “loophole.”
“I condemn political violence. It is a threat to democracy. I wanted to discuss one of the roots of political violence: guns,” said Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington, D.C.
Norton then criticized Republican efforts to overturn Washington DC’s gun control laws.
Cheatle engaged in a heated exchange with Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who began his questioning by saying, “There are some things that my friends don’t really want to talk about, like AR-15s and whether 20-year-olds and 20-year-olds should be able to get AR-15s.”
Connolly then asked Cheatle whether the prevalence of firearms in the United States made it harder for the Secret Service to protect political leaders, to which Cheatle replied that the threat of firearms was not unique, but was part of the environment in which the Secret Service operates every day. But that answer contradicted the question, infuriating Connolly.
“I’m not asking that question. I’m not questioning the Second Amendment. I’m asking for a simple analysis. … Answer the question,” Connolly said, repeatedly asking Cheatle if easier access to firearms for Americans is making agents’ jobs harder.
When Cheatle did not answer Connolly directly, Connolly accused her of dodging the question and said it gave him no confidence in her continued tenure as director.
Connolly said he was aware of political violence after his office was attacked by assailants wielding bats.
Cheatle acknowledged at the hearing that the shooting was “the Secret Service’s most serious operational failure in decades”, but said he was the best person to lead the law enforcement agency.
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