During interviews with CNN on Monday, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) called for the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle over her failure to “answer the most basic questions that are on the minds of all Americans.” And the “unforgivable” security failure at 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump’s rally and her “pretty unforgivable” performance before a House hearing that day.
On “The Source,” Raskin stated that he doesn’t think President Joe Biden will have to fire Cheatle if she won’t resign, “I think she’s burned her bridges to Congress because she couldn’t answer or wouldn’t answer the most basic questions that are on the minds of all Americans. How did this shooter get up on that roof 150 yards away from the presidential podium? Why did the Secret Service or local and state police not respond when there were very clearly rallygoers who were pointing and yelling at the guy up on the roof, saying, look what’s happening there? And she came to our committee and there was bipartisan shock that she could not answer or refused to answer the most basic questions. And so, by the end of the hearing, everybody said, on a bipartisan basis — I’m not sure every member, but everybody who spoke about it said, you’ve got to go, you’ve got to resign.”
He added, “I’ve got to say, my reaction leaving that room today was there was a lot more secret and a lot less service going on, and everything is cloaked in a lot of just bureaucratic darkness and mystery. And there wasn’t a sense that they needed to serve the people of the country and the Congress in terms of giving us answers.”
Earlier, on “Inside Politics,” Houlahan said, “Certainly, I’ve been able to watch while we were waiting to talk here, and what I saw was pretty unforgivable, really, honestly. A pretty bipartisan, resounding questioning of her, and she didn’t have anything to say, as near as I can tell, that would help us understand what happened. It’s unforgivable that any sitting president or former President or anybody under the security of our Secret Service should ever be exposed in the way that they were — that he was and in the way that people at the rally were. And so, I’m, alongside my colleagues, kind of deeply unnerved by the lack of answers and response from this hearing.”
She added, “I was hoping to hear some answers from this testimony and haven’t heard anything that’s given me any sort of assurance that there was such a protocol or action. I think that the buck does stop with the Director there, and my guess is that you will be hearing for her — calls for her resignation.”
Houlahan added that Cheatle should resign.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
