Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle appeared to backtrack on Tuesday as the service and local police came under fire for security lapses at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania.
In an interview with CNN, Cheatle said the Secret Service was “solely responsible” for security at Trump’s rallies, where a suspect, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, climbed to the roof of a nearby building and fired a rifle at Trump. One spectator was killed and the Republican candidate and two others were wounded in the assassination attempt on Saturday.
She told CNN that no property was appropriated for the rally on the day Trump was shot, even though other events in the state required Secret Service protection.
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Former President Trump and Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle (inset) are dragged off the stage on Saturday. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images, inset photo; Rebecca Droke/AFP, main photo)
“At that particular site, we have divided up the areas of responsibility, but the Secret Service remains entirely responsible for the design, implementation and execution of the site,” Cheatle told the outlet.
The director of the Secret Service previously told ABC News that local police have jurisdiction over the AGR International building where Crooks found his targeting spot.
“The point I was trying to make is, we just divided up areas of responsibility and they provided support to those areas of responsibility,” Cheatle said, adding that the Secret Service “cannot do its job without local law enforcement.”
“The responsibility lies with her,” Mr Cheatle told the ABC, but added that the AGR International site was managed by local police and officers were on the premises.
“In this case, we shared assistance with that particular location, with the Secret Service working the inner perimeter,” Cheatle told ABC, “and then we asked local police for assistance with the perimeter. We had local police in that building. We had local police in that area working the perimeter of the building.”
Asked whether the rally’s boundaries were too narrow, Cheatle told CNN they were “as broad as necessary to ensure the safety of the event that we had that day.”
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FBI agents visit the Bethel Park, Pennsylvania home of attempted assassin of former President Trump, Thomas Crook (pictured). (AFP/Reuters/Aaron Jozefczyk)
“What happened was a terrible incident and should never have happened. We will of course learn from this incident and respond accordingly.”
She added that full preparations were in place on the day of the shooting and that both internal and external investigations were being conducted into the security breach.
“[If] “There are things in our policies or procedures or methods that we need to change and we certainly will,” Cheatle said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has opened an investigation into the Secret Service’s handling of Trump’s rally, after President Biden announced earlier this week that he was ordering an independent investigation into Saturday’s events.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said the House was also conducting an “immediate” and “thorough” investigation, while Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said in a press release that he had called Cheatle, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray to testify on July 23 “to examine the facts and circumstances” surrounding the assassination attempt.
Cheatle and the Secret Service have faced increased scrutiny since Crooks climbed to the top of a building and managed to get a view of Trump as he spoke from about 130 yards away. He has refused calls to resign.
Fox News Digital reported that local police officers spotted a suspicious man with a rangefinder just 30 minutes before the assassination attempt in Butler on Saturday.
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Two FBI agents are searching the roof of AGR International, adjacent to the Butler Fairgrounds where suspect Matthew Thomas Crooks opened fire on former President Trump on Saturday. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
The officer reported what he saw to state police, according to a police source. The officer took photos and there was some discussion about whether he had binoculars to get a better view of the rally. But minutes after Trump spoke, Officer Crooks began firing, authorities said.
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Cheatle praised the agents who worked the rally the day of the assassination attempt, both those she spoke with and others she plans to speak with in the future.
“Obviously it’s a difficult conversation. Everyone [who] “No one who works in the Secret Service wants to have a day like this,” Cheatle told CNN. “We did our job flawlessly. The men and women who protected the president that day, the counter-sniper men, did their job flawlessly. I’m very proud of how they conducted themselves.”
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo, Greg Norman and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
