Secret Service 'failed' to protect Trump, admits director

Photo: Kent Nishimura Getty Images via Agence France-Presse Calls for the resignation of US Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle, nominated in 2022 by President Joe Biden, have come from both sides of the political spectrum.

Chris Lefkow – Agence France-Presse in Washington

Published at 12:25 p.m. Updated at 2:50 p.m.

• United States

The American secret services admitted Monday, during a congressional hearing, that their services had “failed” in their mission to protect Donald Trump, targeted on July 13 in Pennsylvania by an assassination attempt , while rejecting calls for his resignation.

“The solemn mission of the Secret Service is to protect our nation’s leaders…. On July 13, we failed,” Director Kimberly Cheatle told the House Oversight Committee.

“As director, I “takes full responsibility for any security breach,” she added, calling the events targeting the former US president and the current Republican presidential candidate “the most significant operational failure of the US secret services for decades.”

Since July 13, his service, responsible for protecting high-ranking American officials, has faced criticism over possible human failings and failures. . And calls for the resignation of Ms. Cheatle, appointed in 2022 by President Joe Biden, have come from both sides of the political spectrum.

The latter has dismissed this idea, assuring: “I think I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time. »

She also declined to answer many specific questions from lawmakers about the attack, saying multiple investigations were ongoing.

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“I can only speak in general terms,” ​​she said, to the frustration of both Republican and Democratic members of the committee.

The investigations are intended to determine how a shooter ended up on the roof of a building with a semi-automatic rifle, less than 500 feet from the stage where Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the northeast of the country.

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“Incompetence”

The former US president, aged 78, was slightly injured in the ear during shots. Photos of him with blood streaming down his face and his fist raised went around the world. One bystander was killed and two others seriously injured.

The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot and killed by the Secret Service 26 seconds after the first of eight shots he made.

This weekend, US media reported that the Secret Service had rejected requests for increased security from Donald Trump in the past.

This service is handling including the security of the President, Vice President, former Presidents and their families, as well as major election candidates and foreign heads of state traveling to the United States.

At the start of the hearing, the chairman of the commission, Republican James Comer, affirmed that this “drama was avoidable”, saying he was convinced that Kimberly Cheatle “must resign”.

“The secret services do not have the right to make the slightest error in its missions, but they failed on July 13 and in the days preceding the rally” in Pennsylvania, a -he added.

According to him, the service, which “has thousands of employees and has a large budget”, has today become synonymous with “incompetence”.

A former Trump White House doctor said this weekend that the ex-president had a two-centimeter wound in the top of his right ear that was beginning to heal.

“The bullet came within an inch of entering his head,” according to Ronny Jackson, who is now an ultraconservative Texas lawmaker and said he was treating the candidate Republican since the assassination attempt.