A group of Republican senators confronted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, determined to get answers about how the agency failed to protect former President Donald Trump from an assassination attempt.
Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Barrasso (R-WY), James Lankford (R-OK), and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) circled Cheatle in public at the convention Wednesday evening and hammered the former Pepsi executive with questions that have gone unanswered in the four days since the attack.
“Sen. Blackburn and I just went face to face with the director of the Secret Service asking for specific answers about what happened with President Trump in Pennsylvania and how that shooter was able to get off a clear shot,” Barrasso said in a video that recapped the encounter.
After a few minutes of questioning Cheatle, the Secret Service official attempted to dodge and walked away while the senators trailed her. She eventually broke from the lawmakers by taking an escalator upstairs.
Blackburn added that Cheatle “can run, but she can’t hide.”
BREAKING: We just confronted the Secret Service Director at the RNC Convention.
She can run, but she can’t hide from accountability. pic.twitter.com/i7NUIpGeLC
— Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) July 18, 2024
House lawmakers have already called her Cheatle to resign or lose her salary if she stays in office.
Secret Service and FBI officials briefed House and Senate lawmakers in separate private briefings Wednesday afternoon.
Barrasso said the suspect, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was flagged as suspicious more than an hour before he ultimately fired on Trump from a nearby rooftop.
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“He was identified as a character of suspicion because [he had] a rangefinder as well as a backpack. And this was over an hour before the shooting actually occurred,” Barrasso told Fox News. A source familiar with the call told the Washington Examiner the precise lead time mentioned was 62 minutes.
“So, you would think over the course of that hour, you shouldn’t lose sight of the individual. Somebody ought to be following up on those sorts of things,” Barrasso added. “No evidence of that happening at all.”