by Jason Cohen
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday he intends to call on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign following the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Cheat he said On Monday, she said she had no intention of resigning from her position after her agency received reaction over potential security lapses that led to Trump being wounded by a sniper’s bullet Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. Johnson, speaking on “America’s Newsroom,” said he plans to call on Cheatle to resign over the incident itself, as well as her answers when they answer media questions.
TO WATCH:
Mike Johnson Says He Will Call on Secret Service Director to Resign After Trump Assassination Attempt photo:twitter.com/Ncom1aWVkk
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 17, 2024
“We’re going to move quickly. On Monday, I’m going to establish a task force, a special task force in the House of Representatives, and the reason we’re going to do it this way is because it’s a more precise strike,” Johnson said. “It’s going to go faster. There’s not a lot of procedural hurdles, and we’re going to have the authority to issue subpoenas for that task force. It’s going to be a mix of Republicans and Democrats to get to the heart of this quickly, so that the American people can get the answers they deserve. Within hours of the attempted coup, I was on the phone with Secretary Mayorkas at Homeland Security. He didn’t have satisfactory answers at the time. Since then, I’ve been talking to leaders of the FBI, the Director of National Intelligence.”
“There are real questions, let’s put it this way. The answers haven’t come,” he continued. “I think they’re collecting data. We’re going to do that too. We have to be held accountable for that. It was inexcusable. Of course there were security lapses. You don’t have to be a special operations expert to understand that, and we’ll get to the bottom of it quickly.”
Host Dana Perino asked if Johnson thinks Cheatle should step down.
“I will also be calling for her resignation. Look, I think this is inexcusable, except for the classified parts,” Johnson said. “The things we all understand. Her explanation to the media that the roof was tilted so there were safety concerns? Oh come on. That won’t go through. And I think she showed where her priorities are.”
Security experts and former Secret Service agents he said The Daily Caller News Foundation says the pitched roof explanation doesn’t make sense.
Peter Yachmetz, a retired FBI agent and principal security consultant at Yachmetz Consulting Group, noted that the shooter moved around on a “dangerous” rooftop before attempting to attack.
“The slope had no effect on him,” Yachmetz told DCNF.
– – –
Jason Cohen is a reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
