Senators were left with more questions than answers on Wednesday after a conference call with the US Secret Service about the assassination attempt on former President Trump, with one senator describing it as a “100 percent whitewashed report.”
The Secret Service briefed senators privately as questions remained about how the gunman who shot Trump managed to get onto a roof about 200 yards from where he was speaking to supporters.
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said the meeting was a “totally hidden briefing” as the Secret Service and its director, Kimberly Cheatle, remain under scrutiny.
The sheriff’s office said that “no one has taken responsibility” for the shooter, even though he had been “identified as a suspicious person an hour before the shooting.”
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Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump was surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“He had a rangefinder and a backpack. The Secret Service lost him. Nobody took responsibility, nobody was held accountable. Someone died. The president was almost killed. The head of the Secret Service needs to resign,” Barrasso said of Cheatle.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said she was “appalled” to learn the Secret Service was aware of the threat before Trump took the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I have no confidence in Secretary Cheatle’s leadership and believe it is in our nation’s best interest for her to step down,” she wrote to X after Wednesday’s briefing.
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the country deserves accountability and responsibility and called for Cheatle’s resignation.
Meanwhile, more than 20 Texas lawmakers House Oversight Committee Republican state Rep. Ellen Troxclair led a letter to the committee and its chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), on Wednesday calling for an investigation into the “political rhetoric” used against Trump before the shooting, including “the grotesque portrayal of President Trump and the tens of millions of Americans who support him as an ‘enemy’ or a ‘threat to democracy’ prior to the assassination attempt.”
“The American people are entitled to answers,” the lawmakers wrote, first expressing their gratitude to the commission that launched an investigation into this deadly incident. “At the very least, we need to understand how the assassination attempt happened and what will be done to ensure it never happens again.”
On Monday, Cheatle said the Secret Service would cooperate with the independent investigation announced by President Biden..
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“The Secret Service is working with all involved federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from happening again. We understand the importance of the independent investigation announced yesterday by President Biden and will cooperate fully,” she said.
