Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies on Trump assassination attempt | CNN Politics (2024)

United Sates Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee during a hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on July 22 in Washington, DC.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday faced frustrated House lawmakers from both parties, who grilled her over the stunning security failures that led to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Cheatle acknowledged that there were “significant” problems at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, where the former president was shot in the ear, and she didn’t downplay the historical and political significance of the event.

Before Trumptook the stage at the rally, the director said, theSecret Servicehad been notified“between two and five times” that there was a suspicious person in the area.

Yet one by one, as members of the House Oversight Committee tried to pry loose new information about the security breakdown and what is being done to ensure it never happens again, Cheatle repeatedly stonewalled lawmakers’ efforts to get answers and pointed to the ongoing FBI investigation.

The director alsoremained defiantin the face of bipartisan calls for her immediate resignation.

Here are key takeaways from the hearing:

Read more about Cheatle’s testimony here.

Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer and Rep. Jamie Raskin, sent an official letter calling for the resignation of Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle following Monday’s hearing.

During the hearing, Comer, who chairs the committee, said “I don’t think we’ve answered very many questions.”

“The American people have questions, they deserve answers. Congress deserves answers. You were subpoenaed today to provide answers. And ma’am, you did not do that,” he added.

As the hearing wrapped, Comer said he and Raskin would be “sending a letter requesting that you submit your resignation as a step towards accountability in what happened.”

Read the full letter below:

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee, called for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign.

“I think that the director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent” moment in history, Raskin said as the hearing ended.

The Maryland congressman is now the most notable Democrat to say Cheatle should resign.

When asked by GOP Rep. Russell Fry when Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man who attempted to kill Donald Trump, was identified as a threat, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said it was mere seconds before he started shooting at the former president.

“It’s approximately five minutes to where individuals relayed that there was an (issue) being worked at the three o’clock of the former president,” the lawmaker from South Carolina said, referring to Crooks’ location from Trump’s perspective. “But it was not phrased as a threat. It was just that something was being worked on.”

“When did he transform from suspicion to threat?” Fry asked.

“I believe that it was seconds before the gunfire started,” Cheatle said.

As she’s been peppered with questions from lawmakers suggesting differing timelines of when Crooks was on the roof or near the rally, Cheatle has given confusing answers regarding when and where the shooter was spotted.

Several members of the bipartisan congressional delegation who visited the site of the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump said they toured the rooftop where the gunman shot at the former president.

“One thing is clear, is for sure; it’s way too close,” Republican Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania said after touring the site in Butler, located in his home state.

Kelly and the other Republicans also questioned why a security agent wasn’t stationed on the water tower that had sightline to the entire location of the rally.

“That water tower surveils the entire landscape,” Kelly said.

Former Navy Seal sniper and current Republican Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona said he felt they were being “lied to” and also questioned why a sniper wasn’t positioned on the tower.

GOP Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida called the lack of coverage “unacceptable.”

He criticized US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle who said the slope of the roof was a safety factor in an interview with ABC News last week.

Democrats who joined the visit did not explicitly call for Cheatle’s resignation, but said the “person at the top” must ultimately “pay the price.”

Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said law enforcement who led them on the site visit said there were significant communication breakdowns that day resulting in information not being shared between all the agencies that were working at the venue.

Following the visit, Thompson said the Butler Farm Show location should have not been used for Trump’s rally, saying it was hard to secure due to its expansive layout.

Thompson said the nearby fairgrounds should have been used, considering it has hosted Trump rallies before and law enforcement was familiar with it.

The US Secret Service director said Monday that she believes the shooter at the Donald Trump rally acted alone, an assessment that matches what FBI officials have told the public about their investigation.

Under questioning from GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said that “at this time, we do not have that there were any other people engaged” in the shooting.

Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, told reporters last week that investigators believe the shooter acted alone, but cautioned that the agency was still in the early stages of its investigation.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said on Monday that she apologized directly to Donald Trump after the former president survived the assassination attempt against him earlier this month.

“Did you apologize to him directly, for nearly having President Trump killed?” Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert asked Cheatle.

“Yes, I did,” the director replied.

“I appreciate that. I appreciate that you recognize that this was your failure,” the congresswoman said.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tore into US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday, calling her a “complete failure” as she pressed the agency head over whether there was “a conspiracy to kill President Trump.”

She continued: “That means that you are a complete failure as the director of the Secret Service that people under your command don’t perceive a man laying on a roof with a direct line to the president with a gun – they don’t perceive that to be a threat, yet the people in the crowd do, how is that possible?”

Greene went on to ask Cheatle whether there was a “stand down order” on her agents’ response to the shooter before he began shooting at the rally.

“Was there a conspiracy to kill President Trump?” the congresswoman asked.

“Absolutely not,” Cheatle replied.

“Then how did this happen and why are you still sitting here not turning in your letter of resignation?” Greene said.

GOP Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania continued a theme from some Republicans in today’s hearing, suggesting that Secret Service agents weren’t selected based on merit.

He asked the agency’s Director Kimberly Cheatle whether shorter agents should be assigned to protect Donald Trump, who is over six feet tall.

“I assign agents to work our protectees that are capable and have been trained,” she said.

The questions mirror criticisms from some on the right about whether the female US Secret Service agents assigned to Trump were adequately able to protect the former president because they were shorter than their male counterparts.

Perry responded, “I understand they’re trained…But if somebody’s seven feet tall and you’re five feet tall, there’s going to be a delta there that is problematic in protecting the protectant.”

“The agents that are assigned to our protectees are perfectly capable,” Cheatle said.

Republican Rep. Nick LaLota of New York said he doesn’t want Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign until she answers more questions.

LaLota said there needs to be some days of accountability before she “falls on sword.”

LaLota joined a group of bipartisan lawmakers visiting the site of the assassination attempt in Bulter, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

LaLota added that he wants to have a better understanding “what was on her mind during those decision-making processes that involved denying requests from agents within the Trump campaign who asked for additional security for events like this.”

More background: CNN reported over the weekend that Trump’s security detail had complained they were not being given enough resources and personnel by the Secret Service over the past two years, and the agency acknowledged Saturday it denied some requests.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said resources were not denied for Trump’s rally on July 13, where the shooting occurred.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has not visited the site of the assassination attempt, she said during the hearing Monday.

“Have you visited the site,” Rep. Pat Fallon asked Director Cheatle.“No, I have not,” she said.

US Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle testified that the agency was told of a suspicious individual “somewhere between two and five times” on the day of the Bulter, Pennsylvania, rally where Donald Trump was nearly assassinated.

Cheatle also said they are looking into whether there was a communication breakdown that day.

“Again, I’m not clear on the timeline of when the Secret Service (detailed to Trump) and the counter sniper were notified” of the individual, she added.

“I have to assume that they did not know that there was a threat when they brought the President out on the stage,” Cheatle said.

United Sates Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is sworn in before testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee during a hearing at the Rayburn House Office Building on July 22 in Washington, DC.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has sparked frustration among lawmakers at today’s House Oversight Committee hearing after repeatedly dodging questions over what happened during the rally, who was responsible for watching the roof where the shooter fired from and several other inquiries around the Secret Service’s failures.

In her opening remarks before the committee, Cheatle said the assassination attempt against Donald Trump was “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”

Cheatle said that despite the agency’s failure, she intends to stay on as director and stated: “I think I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.”

Here are key lines from the hearing, so far:

Rep Nancy Mace attends a House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing on Monday.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace told the director of the Secret Service that she’s “full of sh*t” during Monday’s hearing, ripping into the agency head over her alleged non-compliance with the committee’s probe into the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Another member of the committee could be heard saying, “We have to maintain decorum in this committee, no matter how upset we get.”

Secret Service Director Kimberly Director Cheatle confirmed Monday that the Secret Service has made adjustments to the security around Vice President Kamala Harris since Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race Sunday.

Cheatle added that security reviews have continued to be adjusted for the agency’s other protectees and protected sites in Washington, DC, since the shooting. There were also additional reviews done before the Republican National Convention last week.

“We are already prepared for an eventual VP nominee, and we continue to make those assessments,” Cheatle said.

More than two hours into today’s House hearing, lawmakers continue to express frustration over Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle’s failure to give answers to questions over the security failures that led to the near assassination of Donald Trump.

Both Republicans and Democrats called out Cheatle for refusing to answer questions over what happened during the rally, who was responsible for watching the roof where the shooter fired from and several other questions around the Secret Service’s failures.

Cheatle continued to cite ongoing investigations to explain why she couldn’t answer these questions.

Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona accused Cheatle of stonewalling.

“You should have come today, ready to give us answers,” Biggs said. “I call on you to resign today. Today.”

Even outside the hearing, lawmakers expressed their frustration with Cheatle.

Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee said that the committee isn’t getting answers from Cheatle and that she “absolutely” should resign and should have been fired last week.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, saying her lack of answers about the assassination attempt is “simply not acceptable.”

The New York congresswoman said that lawmakers may need to consider policy or legislative changes as a result of the shooting.

Cheatle said that though a report will take about 60 days to finalize, “I’m not waiting for a report to take action.”

United Sates Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee during a hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on July 22 in Washington, DC.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said she expects the initial investigation from the agency into the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump to be completed in 60 days.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general are also investigating the shooting.

“Have any employees been disciplined for their role in (the) Bulter, PA incident?” GOP Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas said.

“No sir, not at this time,” she said. “We are still in the process of interviewing people.”

The US Secret Service director has been grilled repeatedly during today’s House hearing about how the shooting during Donald Trump’s rally unfolded —and what her agents were doing before and after.

Through videos, maps and photos, CNN pieced together what occurred from the start of the rally to the chaotic moments when gunshots erupted to, ultimately, when Trump landed in Newark, New Jersey, early Sunday morning.

Here’s how the shooting unfolded:

6:05:12 p.m. ET: Trump starts addressing his supporters and speaks for roughly six minutes before the scene erupts into chaos.

6:09 p.m. ET: Video shows some attendees notice the gunman on the roof at least one minute and 57 seconds before the shooting begins, based on an analysis comparing this video to the moments in Trump’s speech.At least one law enforcement officer appears in the video to be walking around the building where the gunman is on the roof. You can see the gunman laying down on the roof crawling as people in the crowd shout out that there’s someone on the roof.Several rally attendees try to call attention to the gunman as Trump is speaking on the stage.

Trump is in the middle of speaking when someone in the crowd is heard saying, “He’s got a gun.” As the video captures someone in the crowd repeating, “On the roof. He’s got a gun,” three shots ring out. A pause and five more shots in rapid succession are heard, along with a final shot of a different tone. “Stay under here,” an attendee says in the video.

6:11:33 p.m. ET: Trump pauses mid-sentence as shots ring out.

6:11:34 p.m. ET: Trump touches the right side of his face.

6:11:35 p.m. ET: Trump takes cover as US Secret Service agents rush to the podium to surround him. “Get down, get down, get down,” one says.

While the gunman is positioned outside the rally venue, the distance between him and where Trump is speaking is only approximately 400 to 500 feet. CNN has learned that the gunman accessed the roof by climbing a building AC unit, though the timing of this action is not known.

You can see a full visual timeline of the events before, during and after the assassination attempt here.

When pushed over questions of why the rally was allowed to continue even as people in the crowd could see Thomas Matthew Crooks climbing on the roof in the moments before the shooting, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said they are still looking through communications that day with law enforcement on the ground.

“I don’t know all of the communications” that day, she said.

Cheatle also said they are “going back and looking at communications to know when the information about a suspicious person was passed to Secret Service personnel.”

In the days since the assassination attempt, there have been questions about the lines of communication between the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies on the site.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle forcefully responded to calls for her resignation during Monday’s House Oversight Committee hearing.

GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx had asked Cheatle how she got her job, following up onconservative media reportsthat President Joe Biden’s family recommended her for the position.

Foxx, a top North Carolina Republican, asked if it was “typical” for the director to be selected by members of the president’s family, asking specifically about the influence of first lady Jill Biden. (Cheatle was previously part of Jill Biden’ssecurity detailwhen Joe Biden was vice president.)

In her opening statement, Cheatle said she has helped protect every president since Bill Clinton.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle pushed back against criticisms of the gender makeup of the US Secret Service, appearing to respond to allegations circling around right-wing media outlets and lawmakers that female agents are in part blame for security failures at the Donald Trump rally.

Female agents who were part of Trump’s Secret Service detail were photographed shielding the former president after the failed assassination attempt. Some on the right have claimed that the women couldn’t properly protect Trump.

Those theories were tacitly brought up during the oversight hearing Monday by Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman.

Grothman questioned Cheatle over alleged efforts to “change the makeup of the Secret Service” because there was “too high a percentage are men.”

“Does this affect at all who you are hiring for the Secret Service,” Grothman asked.

“Okay, you ever…not hiring men because of your desire to hit certain targets,” Grothman asked.

A Virginia Democrat got into a testy exchange with US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle over the question of whether guns in America make the agency’s job “easier or harder.”

“How else could I feel, Director Cheatle, when you are clearly avoiding a direct answer to a very simple, declarative question,” Connolly said.

“We almost lost a presidential candidate the other day. A 20-year-old had access to his father’s AR-15 and got on top of a roof within 500 yards or feet of the podium and I’m asking you did the availability of that AR-15, which is replicated all across America, make your job harder or easier, and you’re not willing to answer that question,” the lawmaker said.

“We live with the threat of violence, but a simple answer from the director of the Secret Service would be help and I’m sorry you’ve chosen to evade it,” the congressman added.

Former President Donald Trump is surrounded by US Secret Service agents as he is helped off the stage at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said the detail normally assigned to Donald Trump was there the day of the shooting.

Wisconsin Republican Rep. Glenn Grothman had asked about “stuff on the internet” that said Trump’s usual detail was not there that day.

House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner, who also sits on the House Oversight Committee, repeatedly pressed US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on whether the security provided for Donald Trump was good enough to account for an Iranian plot to assassinate the former president.

Turner went on to say that when he raised this issue with FBI Director Chris Wray, the director was “incensed. He was shocked that the threat assessment of Iran did not seem baked in to your security footprint and your threat assessment.”

Wray, Turner said, “went on to say that the generalized threat that he has told the whole country that we are under from a terrorist, a potential terrorist threat — he has said we’re under the highest threat level since 9/11. That the lights are flashing red,” Turner said.

CNN has previously reported that US authorities obtained intelligence from a human source in recent weeks on a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Trump, a development that led to the Secret Service increasing security around the former president, multiple people briefed on the matter told CNN.

There’s no indication that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin who attempted to kill the former president, was connected to the plot, the sources said.

When pressed on why Donald Trump was not rushed off the stage immediately, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle would not give an exact answer but rather highlighted the bravery of the agents who surrounded the former president, creating a body shield on stage

“In under three seconds they threw themselves” on Trump, Cheatle said.

Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch from Massachusetts pushed Cheatle on the issue, highlighting that Trump was on stage for “over a minute of exposure on that podium.”

See a visual timeline of the shooting here.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said that the shooter at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally had a rangefinder on him that day, but that rangefinders aren’t always prohibited at events protected by the agency.

A rangefinder is a device used to measure distances to remote objects, and individuals using a firearm sometimes use one to try and be more accurate or to adjust their shot.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is sworn in during a House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on July 22.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle frustrated lawmakers Monday as she walked a tightrope with her testimony, giving carefully worded answers and plenty of non-answers to tough questions.

The top Republican and Democrat on the House Oversight Committee peppered Cheatle with some of the biggest questions that are still unresolved:

In response to these questions, and many more, Cheatle pivoted away and didn’t directly respond.

There were some morsels of new information that Cheatle revealed – like the fact that she has spoken with the counter-sniper who killed Crooks and that her agency didn’t reject any requests from Trump’s campaign foradditional securityat the specific rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the attack occurred.

After Rep. Jim Jordan, the firebrand Ohio Republican and stalwart Trump supporter, grilled Cheatle and accused her of hiding the truth, saying, “It looks like you won’t answer some pretty basic questions.”

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said that she has spoken to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris since the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania.

Under questioning from Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, the director said that “I have briefed the President and the Vice President,” but has not talked to the first lady or “the White House staff.”

Cheatle added that she has spoken to the sniper who killed the shooter, but declined to give any details about that conversation.

Ranking member Jamie Raskin pushed Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle over why former President Donald Trump was allowed to take the stage on July 13 despite law enforcement being warned that there was a “suspicious” person in the crowd.

Cheatle said the US Secret Service differentiates between someone acting “suspicious” and there being “a threat,” Cheatle said.

Cheatle continued, “there are a number of times at protective events where suspicious people are identified, and those individuals have to be investigated” to determine whether the pose a real threat.

House Oversight Committee chair James Comer pressed Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle over whether, prior to the shooting earlier this month, Donald Trump had been given all the security he requested.

“Before July 13 had the Trump detail requested additional resources?” Comer asked.

CNN has reported that there were previous events where the Secret Service denied Trump specific requests and supplemented them, in some instances, with local law enforcement.

Ranking member, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, also pressed on this issue, asking if there were other events where security requests were denied.

Cheatle did not directly answer but said that “when an event or a venue is identified by” Trump campaign staff, they then work with Secret Service on security will look like.

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan pressed Cheatle on this as well, asking if she was lying previously when the Secret Service said they had not denied security requests.

“For the event in Butler, there were no requests that were denied,” Cheatle said.

“Well maybe they got tired of asking,” Jordan said.

Cheatle added: “There are a number of ways that threats and risks can be mitigated through a number of different assets.”

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle dodged questions from Chair James Comer on why the agency didn’t place one of its agent on the roof the gunman used during the shooting at the Donald Trump rally.

“At any point Saturday did the Secret Service have an agent on top of that roof?” Comer asked.

“Can you answer why the Secret Service didn’t place a single agent on the roof?” Comer asked.

“We are still looking into the advance process and the decisions that were made,” the director responded, eliciting an audible reaction from people in the hearing room.

Comer went on to ask whether the building in question was “within the perimeter that should be secured? Do we agree with that?”

“The building was outside of the perimeter on the day of the visit, but again that is one of the things that during the investigation we want to take a look at,” Cheatle responded.

In her opening remarks before the House Oversight Committee, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said the assassination attempt against Donald Trump was “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”

Cheatle added that she was keeping Trump and his family in her thoughts and expressed her condolences to the victims of that shooting that day, including Corey Comperatore, who was killed that day, and James Copenhaver, who was shot.

“Thinking about what we should have done differently is never far from my thoughts,” she said.

The director also focused on the agents who moved quickly to protect the former president once the shots rang out.

“I am proud beyond words of the actions taken by the former president’s detail, the counter-sniper team that neutralized the gunman, and the tactical team that provided cover during the evacuation,” she said.

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee opened Monday’s hearing by zeroing in on the gun violence that has plagued the US in recent years, framing the attempted assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump as just one of the latest in a growing list of “mass shootings” around the country.

As Raskin spoke, an aide held up a large piece of poster board behind him with that listed several other shootings that have taken place across the country.

Raskin also mentioned other violent acts that have impacted members of Congress in recent years, including the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball practice.

In opening remarks, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, said that in today’s hearing with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, lawmakers would be demanding detailed answers for the security failure in the assassination attempt of Donald Trump.

Comer said he has demanded Cheatle resign and noted that so far, no one has been fired for the failure last weekend.

The chair also said that the Secret Service suggested the hearing Monday “occur without media presence” and have only “provided only shallow explanations” for their failure.”

“The July 13 assassination attempt is one of the darkest days in American political history,” Comer said. “It represents the ugliest parts of what American politics has become: hatred of each other and a dangerous turn to extremism.”

Comer added: “Before we are Republicans or Democrats, we are Americans. If we place our political affiliations above our duty and love of country, we cannot maintain a country.”

There is a need for new leadership in the Secret Service, following the failed assassination attempt former President Donald Trump, but now is not the moment, retired Secret Service agent Paul Eckloff told CNN.

Eckloff noted the legacy of James J. Rowley, the Secret Service director at the time of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He explained that rather than assigning blame at that time a training center was established that bears Rowley’s name.

“He was kept on toapply lessons learned and helpthe Secret Service emerge abetter and stronger agency,” Eckloff added.

Eckloff said that he believes that same thought process should apply following the July 13 assassination attempt of Trump.

“The Secret Service needs to adapt and improve its methodologies. It’s simply putthe Secret Service is facing21st century threats, with a 20th budget and manpower stance, based on 19th century assassinations,” he said, adding that the agency now needs to look ahead to 21st century threats.

This still from video shows a poster-sized version of the photo taken by AP photographer Evan Vucci following the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.

A large poster with a now-iconic picture of former President Trump in the aftermath of the assassination attempt is sitting behind Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, on the Republican side of the committee dais.

The pictureshows the now iconic image of Trump, surrounded by US Secret Service agents, with his fist raised in the air. The former president has blood on his face from the injury he sustained on his ear.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.

The House Oversight Committee hearing regarding the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has begun. You can watch the hearing in the video player above this page.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is testifying before the committee as the agency remains under intense scrutiny after the shooting earlier this month at Trump’s campaign rally left the former president and two others injured. One person was killed.

The agency, Cheatle is expected to say, “must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure an incident like July 13th does not happen again. Thinking about what we should have done differently is never far from my thoughts.”

In her testimony — alone and under subpoena — Cheatle will be forced to provide many answers to what is essentially a single question: How did the Secret Service’s biggest failure in four decades happen under her watch?

The committee is chaired by Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky and the ranking member is Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

In his opening statement Monday, released prior to the hearing, Comer said Cheatle should resign and noted that so far, she has refused to do so.

CNN’s Whitney Wild contributed reporting to this post.

United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has arrived on Capitol Hill to testify before the House Oversight Committee regarding the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

Cheatle is a nearly three-decade veteran of the Secret Service, serving in various field offices and vice presidential details including then-Vice President Joe Biden’s detail.

Multiple Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson,have called on Cheatle to resign in wake of the Trump rally shooting.

CNN’s Whitney Wild contributed reporting to this post.

Rep. James Comer speaks during a House Oversight hearing in April.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer previewed his committee’s hearing with United States Secret Service DirectorKimberly CheatleMonday, promising a thorough questioning in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

The Kentucky Republican lawmaker said one of the subjects that will be top of mind is recent reporting thatTrump’s security teamwas deniedextra resources when requested, despite previous statements from the Secret Service to the contrary.

“There aren’t that many people that require Secret Service protection. There aren’t that many events that the Secret Service have to secure. So, the budget is more than enough to provide adequate protection for the presidential candidates,” Comer claimed.

The hearing with Cheatle is scheduled for Monday at 10 a.m. ET.

United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is expected to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Monday that her agency “failed” its mission during the attempted assassination of Donald Trump earlier this month.

In her testimony – alone and under subpoena – Cheatle will be forced to provide many answers to what is essentially a single question: How did the Secret Service’s biggest failure in four decades happen under her watch?

In the days following the attempted assassination, Cheatle has done no press conferences and very few interviews. Monday’s hearing will mark the first opportunity for a lengthy dive into the security failures at Trump’s July 13 rally.

Here are key things to watch for:

Why wasn’t Trump’s team told of a potential threat? The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was spotted multiple times with a rangefinder, a hunting device similar to a pair of binoculars that calculates distance, prior to the shooting. Further, police had circulated a photo of him they had taken. A source told CNN that about 19 minutes before the shooting occurred, law enforcement was trying to locate Crooks, but they could not find him until he was on the roof.

Why wasn’t the roof secured? Crooks fired several shots at Trump from a roof roughly 150 yards away from Trump’s podium. He fired from the roof of a building that was also occupied by a local sniper team on the second floor and served as a staging area for tactical support teams at the rally. Cheatletold ABC Newslast week that a sniper team was not positioned on the roof of the building due to its slope.

Were assets rejected? Trump’s security detail had complained it was not being given enough resources and personnel by the Secret Service over the past two years, something the agencyacknowledged this weekend.

What was the motive? Cheatle will be under pressure from lawmakers to deliver more about the motive behind the shooting. The emerging profile of Crooks more than a week after the shooting has left authorities puzzled about a motive for his assault. Investigators are speculating that his intentions may have been less politically motivated and more aboutattackingthe highest-profile target near him.

Keep reading about today’s House hearing.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is a nearly three-decade veteran of the Secret Service, serving in various field offices and vice presidential details including then-Vice President Joe Biden’s detail.

Cheatle left the Secret Service in 2021 as the Assistant Director of the Office of Protective Operations — a role she held when the Secret Service scrambled to protect then-Vice President Mike Pence from rioters on January 6, 2021.

Multiple Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson,have called on Cheatle to resign.

Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, also said Cheatle needs to leave.

“I’m very sorry to reach this conclusion: I have no confidence in the leadership of the United States Secret Service. I hereby call on Kimberly Cheatle to resign,”Boyle said on X.

This aerial photo taken on July 15 shows the site of the Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Security errors, lapses and missed opportunities to stop a gunman led to the first shooting of a US president or former president in more than a generation.

Here are several issues and problems identified by CNN that could or should have been addressed before the attack on former President Donald Trump.

In addition, CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller provided his analysis of some of the issues and their importance.

Unsecured rooftop in range of the stage and with clear line of sight: The building used by the gunman was outside the “hard perimeter” set by the United States Secret Service inside which every person is screened. But less than 500 feet from the stage, the building was within shooting range and had a clear line of sight to where the former president stood to address the crowd.

Shooter was apparently seen acting suspiciously early by security cordon: The shooter was spotted by local law enforcement who thought he might have been acting suspiciously near the magnetometers on the day of the rally, according to a senior law enforcement official. They put it out over their radio to keep an eye on him – and that information was passed to Secret Service as well, according to the source. When the shooter left the area of the magnetometers, he apparently wasn’t seen again until people alerted law enforcement in a field outside the event that he was on the rooftop.

About an hour before the incident, a person wearing clothing resembling the gunman’s was also captured on video in front of the building whose roof the shooter later climbed, according to footage obtained by CNN affiliate WTAE. Pennsylvania State Police told WTAE they are looking into the video as a part of the investigation. CNN has reached outto the state police for more information. A source told CNN that about19 minutes before the shooting, law enforcement was trying to locate the shooter, but they could not find him until he was on the roof.

Building access not controlled: No one stopped the shooter from reaching the roof of the American Glass Research building.

Keep reading here about security lapses at the rally.

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is for the first time is expected to acknowledge her agency failed when a would-be assassin fired multiple shots and narrowly missed assassinating Donald Trump at a rally.

Cheatle, appearing Monday for her first hearing before Congress, is expected to face six hours for questioning from lawmakers on the assassination attempt, one of the agency’s biggest crises in decades.

Two FBI investigators scan the roof of the building from which alleged shooter Matthew Thomas Crooks fired at former President Donald Trump.

Investigators believethe gunmanwhoattempted to assassinateformer President Donald Trump may have used a drone on a reconnaissance trip to the rally site on the day of the shooting, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Investigators searching Thomas Crooks’ belongings found a drone in his car. The working theory investigators are exploring is that the drone would have given Crooks an overview of the rooftops of nearby buildings and how they connect, according to the law enforcement official. That could have helped him choose the spot where he fired the shots toward the podium where Trump was standing.

New evidence shared by multiple law enforcement officials also reveals that a ladder purchased by Crooks several hours before he opened fire and a backpack believed to have belonged to him have been located and are in the possession of federal authorities.

A man driving near the shooter’s home discovered the ladder and backpack on the side of the road, according to law enforcement sources from two separate agencies. The person reportedly saw the ladder in that location for several days before deciding to alert authorities.

The discoveries of the ladder, backpack and drone come as investigators arestruggling to find a motive for Crooks’ assault. As more details are released about the failed assassination attempt, the US Secret Service has facedquestions and criticismand is scrambling toincrease securityahead of the first campaign rally with both Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance on Saturday.

Keep reading here about what investigators found.