During a Congressional hearing, Rep. Pat Fallon sharply criticized Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle for the agency’s failure to secure the perimeter during a recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Fallon highlighted the lack of personnel on the roof of the AGR building and questioned Cheatle’s knowledge and actions following the incident.
Rep Fallon just tore into the Secret Service director.
“Go back to guarding Doritos” pic.twitter.com/QrVOpiiFK7 [1]
— 🇺🇸Travis🇺🇸 (@Travis_4_Trump) July 22, 2024 [2]
“This is the thing: you just said you had the ability to beef up the security. You knew about the threat, and you didn’t. And that’s as telling as it is chilling. We have satellite images from the Butler fairgrounds. Have you visited the site?” Fallon asked.
Cheatle responded, “No, I have not.”
“Nine days, and you have not visited the site. You should have been there that night. Did you talk to them that evening? Did you talk to the team, the heroes that surrounded the president? Did you call them that night?” Fallon pressed.
“They were still operational work,” Cheatle answered.
“So that’s an answer, no. Did you call the next day?” Fallon continued.
“Yes, I spoke with them,” Cheatle replied.
“You called them the very next day, not the day of? Or was it 72 hours after?” Fallon inquired further.
“I don’t know the timeline,” Cheatle admitted.
“You’re under oath. I think it was 72 hours after you waited three days. What is immediately clear is that there are a number of structures that need to be secured. Of these, Director, other than the first, you know, immediate four, what’s the most dangerous site that should have been secured? Because, you know, security 101, you got to mitigate the high ground,” Fallon emphasized.
“Yes,” Cheatle agreed.
“Okay. Do you know what the next most dangerous site was? What was the closest structure to the president, other than the four immediate ones that you had your counter-sniper teams on?” Fallon asked.
“There are a number of structures around that event site,” Cheatle said.
“You know who knew? The shooter knew. The shooter has visited the site two more times than you have, and he had a drone, and he picked the AGR building. So you said, do you remember, in an ABC interview you did, that you didn’t have people on the roof of the AGR building because you were worried about safety because of the slope?” Fallon questioned.
“I recall that statement,” Cheatle confirmed.
“Does the Secret Service have written policy you can share with us about sloped roofs?” Fallon asked.
“No,” Cheatle responded.
“So why did you act like there was one? Because is it your practice to comment on enormous events of enormous national implications when you’re ignorant of the facts? That’s rhetorical. So here’s this thing with the slopes, you go all up to like 18-12 you can go to a 1-12 which is about as flat as you can get without it being completely flat. And you’re saying that there was a danger safety concern there. But the problem is, Director, you put your counter snipers on a 3-12 roof, which is steeper than the 1-12 and by the way, the 1-12 is ADA compliant, you can build a ramp for a wheelchair on a 1-12 roof. So these are nothing but pathetic excuses, and they make no sense, and they’re a bunch of cow dung,” Fallon said sharply.
“All the law enforcement I’ve spoken with over the last nine days are amazed that the AGR rooftop was not secure. You want to know why? Because it’s dangerous. I have never had any long gun training in my life. I own an AR-15 and last time I shot it, I shot it one time my whole life was six years ago. That is, until Saturday, where we recreated the events in Savoy, Texas. We recreated what happened in Butler. I was lying prone on a sloped roof at 130 yards at 6:30 at night, and I knew that he had a scope of some kind, red dot or magnified. So I shot eight rounds from both. You know what the result was? 15 out of 16 kill shots, and the one I missed would have hit the president’s ear. That’s a 94% success rate, and that shooter was a better shot than me. It is a miracle President Trump wasn’t killed. Corey Comperatore’s life is over because that damn shooter made it on the roof. It wasn’t the roof that was dangerous. It was a nut job on top of the roof. You know what else is dangerous? I believe your horrifying ineptitude and your lack of skilled leadership is a disgrace. Your obfuscating today is shameful, and you should be fired immediately and go back to guarding Doritos,” Fallon concluded.