The video shows Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) aggressively confronting the director of the Secret Service at the Republican National Convention, just days after the Secret Service came under intense scrutiny following the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
“This is an assassination attempt. We owe the public an explanation. We owe President Trump an explanation,” Blackburn can be heard saying. clip A photo shared on X shows her and fellow senators being escorted by Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the convention site in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In another video, Barrasso said he and Blackburn “met face-to-face with Cheatle” to “demand specific answers about what happened to President Trump in Pennsylvania and how the shooter was able to target him when the FBI and SS knew there was a suspicious individual present an hour before the shooting.”
Republicans have called for the head of the Secret Service to resign amid criticism of security at Saturday’s rally, where President Trump was grazed by a bullet in the ear, one rally attendee was killed and two were injured, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has said he will create a congressional task force to coordinate an investigation into security failures around the rally.
“She wouldn’t answer our questions, to tell us that now is not the time or the place,” Blackburn said in the video with Barrasso. “But I would tell her: You can run, but you can’t hide.”
in Longer version of the clip“I don’t think this is the appropriate venue for this discussion,” Cheatle said, adding that he was in the suite “to thank our partners for their hard work in putting on the Republican National Convention, and I don’t want to ruin their evening.”
Cheatle then appears to leave the suite, and the senators follow him up the stairs.
“Continuity of operations is paramount during any significant incident, and U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has no plans to resign,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to The Hill.
Guglielmi said Cheatle “has deep respect for members of Congress and is committed to leading the Secret Service with transparency through our internal investigations and strengthening the agency through the lessons learned from these important internal and external investigations.”
