In an apparent attempt to defend impeached Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle pretended to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Monday about former President Donald Trump’s shooting spree. Her apparent mission was to stonewall, hide behind “ongoing investigations,” and not answer questions that have answers.
One of the questions answered was downright shocking: In his testimony, Cheatle acknowledged that radio communications between Secret Service agents are sometimes recorded, but said that “there are no radio communications remaining” from the day of the assassination attempt.
Below is the video and transcript of yet another astounding failure in an event that continued to be astounding.
Criminal.
Cheatle acknowledged that the USSS does not possess a recording of the July 13 radio communication.
can’t believe it pic.twitter.com/ps7fpzMFzD
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) July 22, 2024
Congressman Russell Frye (Republican, South Carolina): Does the Secret Service routinely record communications between its personnel?
[Long, awkward pause.]
Cheatle: Is it wireless communication?
fry: Any communication.
Cheatle: Email communications and text messages are captured and, depending on the details, radio communications may also be recorded.
fry: Does the Secret Service have records of any communications regarding the events of July 13?
Cheatle: No radio communication from that day remains.
Let’s understand something here…
First of all, this is the same as the Secret Service. Erased Important text messages around January 6th:
The Secret Service erased text messages from Jan. 6 and the day before the attack on the Capitol after the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog requested records of electronic communications related to the riot, according to a letter to congressional committees obtained by NBC News.
Details of the erased messages were revealed in a letter to two congressional committees on Wednesday, in which Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Caffari said he had been informed that many of the messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, were erased “as part of a device replacement program.”
Secondly, notice what Cheatle says there, and this is important: she says that radio communications will be recorded “depending on the details.”
So a former president who is now the leading candidate to become the next president is facing a very real threat from Iran… knowing all of this, why did the Secret Service not record any radio communications during the skirmish?
Defiant: Bloodied Trump pumps fist at crowd after possible shooting at rally
C-SPAN
Third, why all Recording radio communications? In the digital age, this is not difficult, and does not require a huge amount of inconvenience or storage space. This is a thing of the past. Also, this is crucial for ongoing investigations in case of assassinations or assassination attempts. If police officers in Nowhere, Iowa can record everything with their body cameras, why can’t the US Secret Service, with its $8 billion budget, record radio communications when guarding the current presidential front-runner?
This is nonsense.
This reeks of conspiracy and cover-up, and it’s not something to say lightly. In this house, Oswald worked alone, the Earth is round, Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon, and putting fluoride in our water was a good idea. But this… this…?
Cheatle’s testimony was outrageous in its evasions and obstructions. Her explanation was inexcusable and highly questionable. She was not testifying about something like the Obamacare site collapse. The former president, and likely the next president, was close to having his brains blown.
On top of that, there are a number of surprising security flaws that Cheatle doesn’t deny.
- The Secret Service left the roof unguarded, just 450 feet from President Trump’s view.
- To defend this astonishing oversight, the head of the Secret Service falsely excused himself by saying that the roof was too steep and therefore unsafe.
- The Secret Service has repeatedly denied requests for additional security for Trump events over the past two years.
- Days after the assassination attempt, the Secret Service lied and said it had not denied these requests.
- The Secret Service had identified the would-be assassin as a threat at least an hour before Trump took the stage.
- The Secret Service found the assassin on the roof at 5:51 pm.
- The Secret Service gave Trump permission to take to the stage at 6:02 p.m.
- The assassin remained unhindered until 6:11pm, when he fired eight shots, one of which hit Trump but missed him by just a millimetre or two.
As I wrote earlier on Monday:
Either the Secret Service is so incompetent that it is a clear and present danger to democracy, or the Secret Service collaborated in a plot to assassinate someone that the Biden Administration tried to thwart after all else had failed, and only after that failed did a defeated Biden withdraw from the race.
And that was before I learned that no records of radio communication from that day existed.
It also seems odd that this was the only thing she spoke about openly, that this was the only thing she was willing to talk about and share. Why? To get us used to the idea. To casually drop a bombshell and try to control the explosion.
From noon until Sunday, all of this stinks.
John Nolte’s first and last novel Borrowed time, Winning 5-Star Rave Reviews Submissions from our everyday readers. You can read excerpts here here And a detailed review here. Also available in hard cover and Kindle and Audiobooks.
