by Susan Crabtree
New accusations that Secret Service training resources were diverted to “executive bonuses” and DEI-priority hiring come amid a flurry of allegations against agency Director Kim Cheatle and other top officials following the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
In the main hall of Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, Republicans enjoyed a Make America Great Again lovefest Thursday night. But on the convention center’s outer perimeter, anger was still spilling over the avalanche of negative information about the layers of Secret Service failures that led to Trump’s pierced right ear, mere inches from killing him, four days ago at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Two Republican senators furiously lashed out at Cheatle, criticizing her when she refused to answer their repeated questions.
“That’s exactly what you did on the call today — you resisted,” Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, fumed at Cheatle as she walked sternly, not saying a word, a statuesque Secret Service agent at her side.
“This was an attempted coup!” cried Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee. “You owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers.”
Cheatle, who had said nothing, quickly walked away.
Blackburn and Barrasso later posted a video on Twitter recounting the confrontation and repeating their calls for answers and Cheatle’s resignation.
“I have a message for her, she can run but she cannot hide because the American people want to know how the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump was carried out,” she said.
Allegations made against the Secret Service in the last 24 hours include:
- A special agent or Secret Service officer was dispatched to the roof of the building where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired the shots, but he did not report to work that day.
- Cheatle’s explanation for the unmanned roof—that she placed agents and/or officers inside the building because the “slope” of the roof posed a physical threat—made no sense, as there was a similar roof nearby on which two countersnipers were positioned.
- There were four Secret Service snipers at the Pennsylvania rally, but only two of them were from the highly trained ranks of the Secret Service. The other two, who were responsible for firing the shots that killed Crooks, were local law enforcement officers.
AND Petition on change.org calling for Cheatle to resign was locked and placed under review. When the petition closed Tuesday, it was just a few hundred signatures compact of its 10,000 goal. (Hours after RCP at X.com publicly questioned the move as a potential example of censorship, the petition was reinstated.)
The revelations and solemn allegations continued to mount Wednesday, with more lawmakers calling for Cheatle’s resignation after the director held a conference call with senators about security failures. During the call, senators learned that law enforcement had reported Crooks’ suspicious behavior more than an hour before he fired shots at Trump. Agents and officers noticed that Crooks was holding a rangefinder and wearing a backpack. Countersnipers spotted Crooks 20 minutes before the shots were fired.
Senator Barrasso spoke to reporters after the briefing, repeating calls for Cheatle’s resignation and complaining that Cheatle ended the telephone briefing after only a few questions and “didn’t get to the heart of the matter.” Several senators, including Marsha Blackburn, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, remained in line without ever receiving answers to their questions, The Federalist on X.com reported.
“So far, they’ve been flooding us with details that are not helpful,” Sen. Lee, a Utah Republican, said in a post on X.com before the briefing ended. “I have yet to hear them specifically address the mistakes that led to this tragedy.”
Senators on the call also learned that the Secret Service knew about the “potential threat” 10 minutes before Trump took the stage in Pennsylvania but let him leave anyway. That revelation outraged many senators, including Blackburn, who told reporters she was “appalled to learn that the Secret Service knew about the threat before President Trump took the stage.”
“I have no confidence in Director Cheatle’s leadership,” she added, “and I believe it would be in the best interests of our country for her to resign from her position.”
The briefing for senators came after Cheatle failed to deliver a promised briefing Tuesday to House Republicans on the Oversight Committee. Rep. James Comer, who chairs that committee, issued a subpoena Tuesday for Cheatle to appear for a hearing Monday.
The petition calling for Cheatle’s resignation cited her support for the “30×30 Pledge,” which aims to achieve at least 30% women in the workforce by 2030. The pledge is part of a nationwide effort adopted by various law enforcement agencies across the country, one of which Cheatle has openly and enthusiastically supported.
“While Director Cheatle’s goal may be well-intentioned,” the petition stated, “unfortunately, her misguided plan of action utilizes methods that clearly resulted in candidates not being vetted.”
The petition also cited labor shortages due to attrition due to high workloads and low employee morale, as well as “selective promotion practices” during Cheatle’s tenure as director that are not based on merit. It said the agency struggles with insufficient training funds while resources are “realized” on recruiting, promotional testing, and executive bonuses.
The petition detailed allegations that Cheatle and other members of the agency’s “executive leadership” resisted appropriate investigation or disciplinary action for “egregious misconduct” by an agent who received impoverished performance reviews and then accused her supervisor of sexual harassment.
According to a copy of an internal Secret Service memo from January 19, 2024, obtained by RealClearPolitics, the supervisor allegedly filed a whistleblower complaint, resulting in disciplinary action against the agent.
The agency is also facing questions about why snipers shot Crooks only after he fired at Trump.
According to one source in the Secret Service community, the agency has long taken an overly cautious approach to shooting suspicious individuals or entities — even if they are armed.
In the fall of 2014, the Secret Service faced a crisis following several disciplinary and security failures, including fence-hopping attempts to enter the White House. Ralph Basham, former director of the Secret Service from 2003 to 2006, a 30-plus-year veteran of the agency, and former director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, testified at a House Oversight Committee hearing on September 30, 2014.
Under questioning by lawmakers, Basham tried to explain why the Secret Service would not want to shoot first unless it was certain the suspect posed an imminent threat to the president or other protected persons.
“So, I’m sure there’s a lot of stuff going on in the Secret Service’s head when we have an intruder like that,” Basham said. “But I just have a real — well, I think I’m out of time. But I will say that in 1976, there was an individual who came [White House] fence, apparently he had some kind of device with him that – it looked like a gun, but it turned out to be a pipe, and they shot him. And there was criticism for that shooting in 1976. It’s a arduous, arduous balance to strike.”
“This contributed directly (among many other things) to the hesitation to fire the first shot,” the source said. “It should also be noted that [the 1976] “It was the first time I knew of a countersniper shooting at someone.”
“We don’t need a director who will create a culture where countersnipers and others have to be unjustifiably concerned about ‘achieving balance,’” the source continued. “We need to get trained and then find a transformational leader who will support us If “you followed your training.”
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Susan Crabtree is a national political correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
