Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina gave Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle a period of questioning during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday to ask her to resign on the spot.
Mace accused Cheatle of lying to the committee about transparency and cooperation regarding the circumstances and moments leading up to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The South Carolina senator gave Cheatle the full five minutes of questioning time to draft his resignation letter.
“Today, both parties are calling for your resignation. Shall I use my five minutes to draft a letter of resignation for you? Yes or no,” Mace asked.
“Fine,” Cheatle replied.
Cheatle called the assassination attempt a “catastrophic failure” and “preventable.” Mace accused Cheatle of being political and not transparent, saying he leaked his opening statement to Punchbowl News, Politico Playbook and The Washington Post before delivering it to the committee, charges Cheatle denied.
“I have no idea how anything I said got out,” Cheatle said.
“Well, that's bullshit,” Mace replied.
Mace then disputed Cheatle's assertion that the Secret Service was cooperative with the committee, alleging that the director of the Secret Service had not provided the committee's request for a list of employees who attended the July 15 meeting and audio recordings in her possession. (RELATED: 'Don't think I answered the question': Jim Jordan presses Kimberly Cheatle for details of assassination attempt)
“We'll get back to you on that,” Cheatle said.
“That's not true. You've been telling nothing but lies today,” Mace said. “You're being completely dishonest.”
Mace also criticized the committee for having to issue a subpoena to get Cheatle to testify and for avoiding questions about the case.
“You're being dishonest or you're lying. You've been dishonest on this committee. These are important questions that the American people want answers to. You just fudge and you talk in generalities. We had to subpoena you to come here and you won't even answer the questions,” Mace said.
Cheatle later declined to directly answer whether “failures in training or execution” led to the assassination attempt. He said no employees had been fired and would not say when the Secret Service learned of the location of the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks.
The Secret Service and FBI told lawmakers Wednesday that authorities identified Crooks more than 50 minutes before the former president took the stage. One source said agents spotted Crooks with a rangefinder, while another said agents saw Crooks standing on the roof of a nearby building about 20 minutes before the shooting.
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