Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle found herself in a predicament when four senators confronted her Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention per the New York Post.
Video shared over social media shows Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Barrasso (R-WY), James Lankford (R-OK), and Kevin Cramer (R-NC) cornering the director, wanting answers to why she failed to protect former President Donald Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.
“Every one of us had questions that we wanted to ask. We thought we didn’t get any of the responses that were necessary,” said Barrasso, the Senate Republican Conference chair. “Either you resign tonight or start answering our questions right now about the death threat to President Trump and allowing him to go on stage.”
As Cheatle made her exit, the politicians are seen following her, keeping up with her to demand answers.
Earlier in the day, Cheatle along with FBI Director Christopher Wray, gave the senators an hour and a half briefing about Saturday’s events, but the lawmakers were not satisfied with the answers provided.
In that conference call, they disclosed how Thomas Mathew Crooks had scouted the area out days prior and that he had been flagged as suspicious by the Secret Service about an hour before he carried out his assassination attempt.
Learning of the details, Blackburn grilled Cheatle on why they allowed Trump to go on stage when they were aware of a “potential threat.”
“I don’t think that this is the forum to have this discussion,” Cheatle responded. “This hospitality suite is actually to thank the partners who have helped secure the Republican National Convention. I would not want to take away from [that]. I am happy to answer questions. We will do it in an appropriate format.”
Barrasso commanded that they find a location to discuss it “right now” while another senator said that the director “hung up” on them during an earlier discussion.
Cheatle decided to leave but the senators were not going to let her off the hook that easily. They followed her, bombarding her with a bunch of questions demanding that she answer to them.
“This was an assassination attempt, you owe the people answers. You owe President Trump answers,” said Blackburn chasing behind Cheatle.
“It is appalling that the Secret Service director refused to answer our questions. This is one of the greatest security failures in the history of the agency. She can run but she cannot hide. She is a failed leader and she needs to immediately step down from her position,” Blackburn told the New York Post in a statement.
In the video, a frustrated Barrasso can be seen going up to the director telling her, “You cannot run away from your responsibility to the United States.”
Despite all of the criticism, Cheatle reportedly has “no intentions to step down.”
“She deeply respects members of Congress and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the outlet in a statement.
