Rep. Laurel Lee Joins Bay News 9 to Discuss Secret Service Director Cheatle’s Resignation, VP Harris

congresswoman Laura Lee Joins me now she's a republican from district 15 which covers parts of Hillsboro and PT counties welcome back representative great to have you on again it's great to be here thanks for having me absolutely well lots to talk about it's been uh very busy couple of weeks to say the least and I want to start off talking about what happened today to get your reaction to uh the secret service director Kim cheel resigning today uh do you see this as a step in the right direction yes it's absolutely a step in the right direction so today we had a hearing in the homeland security committee to begin the process of getting answers about what happened and what went wrong uh yesterday members of the committee uh went out to Butler Pennsylvania and actually walked the site where the assassination attempt occurred and I joined that group and and getting to see it to see that area uh it's not very large the buildings were very clear in plain sight uh so it's evident that this was really a catastrophic security failure so we are committed to ensuring that we get to the bottom of what happened what went wrong here so that we can make sure that it doesn't happen again and I will say it's been a very bipartisan effort we've seen Republicans and Democrats alike really pointing out what a critical failure this was and that we need to do more to ensure that this doesn't happen and and here we are you know ensuring that it doesn't happen when you're in the the final stretch of a very heated campaign and you know how can there be any confidence going forward that that the candidates will have the protection they need especially since you know we hear from the Trump campaign that they've been asking for more resources for protection for months now and that they've been turned down repeatedly so you know how can there be a level of confidence as we really get into the final stretch of this campaign well that's exactly right is that the campaign of President Trump has indicated to us that they asked repeatedly for additional resources you know and the other thing that we know is until recently they were actually Democrats in Congress calling to end his secret service detail so you know this is a very Stark reminder to us all about just how important it is to provide adequate strong protection uh for president Trump and all of the presidential candidates as we go through the home stretch of this election so we need to understand how this happened what the failures were here a failure to plan a failure to follow up on on critical information that was obtained the day of the assassination attempt uh because you know the American public needs to have confidence and these candidates need to have confidence that they will be safe from these types of threats absolutely let's let's pivot though we have to talk about the other uh huge development today that's vice president uh Harris out on the campaign Trail evidently with enough delegates to secure the Democratic nomination uh for president so how do you see that this race has now changed for Trump if he does indeed face Harris now so I don't expect that there will be a big change for president Trump and and actually Joe Biden himself said it already there's a change in the name at the top of the ticket but the mission is the same and that's the reality is uh kamla Harris has been part at the center of the policies of the Biden Administration uh she was his border are really the lead on the border policy and the catastrophe at the southern border that we have seen so I think what we'll see is that really the campaign will continue as it has been a discussion about the issues and the different visions that the Biden Harris Administration have for our country and what president Trump has for our country and I think those are the issues that we see resonating with voters uh so I don't anticipate that this is going to be a big change uh certainly not from the perspective of the Trump campaign we know that uh President Biden will be addressing the country for the first time tomorrow since he dropped his reele ction bid uh he is now a lame duck president uh do you have the same concerns as we've heard some from some Republicans including uh the house Speaker Mike Johnson about Biden staying in office for the next six months do you share any of those concerns well absolutely they are concerns about his ability to do the job and that's something that House Republicans have been pointing out for a long time this goes all the way back we had multiple hearings in the Judiciary Committee about special counsel hers report related to the classified document that specifically found that even though President Biden had wrongfully retained and possessed those documents that they weren't going to charge him criminally because they didn't believe a jury would find uh that he should be convicted because he was a confused well-meaning elderly old man and that's who we have in the white house so you know certainly I think this is something that House Republicans have been calling attention to for a long time that the Biden Administration has been making every effort to really downplay and conceal from the American public uh but I think the most important thing for us to look at right now is what we want to see what is the Future Vision for America and and I believe that you know that Republican Vision that's focused on an economy that is strong opportunities for American families curbing inflation securing our border I will tell you when I come home that is one of the first things that I hear about uh from voters and and voters really across the political spectrum is every American now is beginning to realize just how dire that crisis at the border is and you know I have every confidence that President Trump and republicans in Congress uh will take Swift action to shut that down congresswoman Laura Lee appreciate your time today thanks for being on great to see you