House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday he plans to ask Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Cheatle said Monday that he would not resign after his agency came under fire for possible security lapses following Saturday's shooting of President Trump, who was wounded by a sniper's bullet in Butler, Pa. Johnson, of “America's Newsroom,” said he plans to call for Cheatle's resignation because of the incident itself and Cheatle's responses to questions from the media.(Related article: Authorities report they found the would-be assassin about 30 minutes before the shooting)
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Mike Johnson says he will call for Secret Service director's resignation following assassination attempt on President Trump pic.twitter.com/Ncom1aWVkk
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 17, 2024
“We will move quickly. We will be launching a task force on Monday, a special task force within the House of Representatives, because we can do that with more precision,” Johnson said. “We will move faster. There will be less procedural hurdles, and the task force will have subpoena power. Republicans and Democrats will come together to get to the bottom of this quickly, and ensure that the American people get the answers they deserve. I spoke with Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas by phone a few hours after the assassination attempt. We did not receive satisfactory answers at the time. I have since spoken with leaders of the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence.”
“There are real questions, let's put it that way. We don't have the answers yet,” he continued. “I think they're collecting data. I think we will too. We have to be accountable for this. This is unacceptable. There were clearly security lapses. You don't have to be a special operations expert to figure that out. We're going to get to the bottom of it soon.”
Host Dana Perino asked Johnson if he thought Cheatle should resign.
“I will also be calling for her resignation. Aside from confidentiality, this is inexcusable,” Johnson said. “We all understand that. You explain to the media that the roof is tilted and there are safety concerns? You're kidding me. That doesn't work. I think she's shown where her priorities are.”
Security experts and former Secret Service agents told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the sloping roof explanation doesn't make sense.
Peter Yachmets, a former FBI agent and principal security consultant at Yachmets Consulting Group, said the gunman had been roaming “unsecured” rooftops before the assassination attempt.
“The slope had no effect on him,” Yakumetz told DCNF.
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