Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley ROAST Acting Secret Service Director Over Trump Shooting as He Tries to LIE

thank you Mr chairman Mr row thank you for being here I agree with what you said at the outset that the individual Secret Service agents demonstrated remarkable personal courage putting their bodies in between the line of sight of the shooter and the president that being said The Bravery of the line agents is quite different from the decisions of Secret Service leadership Secret Service leadership committed catastrophic security failures indeed the worst security failures for the for the Secret Service since 1981 since the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan it is incumbent upon this committee to determine why those security failures happened just after the shooting Secret Service put out an official statement from your spokesperson that says there's an untrue assertion that me a member of the former president's team requested additional security resources that those were rebuffed this is absolutely false in fact we added protective resources and technology and capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel Tempo was this tweet accurate with respect to Butler Pennsylvania it is accurate sir it is accurate that the Trump team had not asked for additional security and had not been rebuffed if you're talking about Butler Pennsylvania all assets requested were approved if you're talking about the media reporting of assets requested uh there were times when assets were uh unavailable and not able to be filled and those gaps were staffed with state and local law enforcement tactical assets so I I'm reading from The Washington Post July 20th 202 4 Secret Service said to have denied requests for more security at Trump events the opening paragraph top officials of the US Secret Service repeatedly denied requests for additional resources and Personnel sought by Donald Trump's security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination uh according to four people familiar with the requests is that right that repeatedly the Trump detail asked for more resources and repeatedly Secret Service leadership turned that down that that is not accurate Senator uh assets are requested there's a process that is made um and how many requests did did the Trump team or the Trump detail ask for uh I can get you that number in a q for you don't you don't know now so I can speak to the ones that reported in the Washington Post and we can go through them if you like but you don't know how many how many requests there were in general how many requests since 2021 that the former Trump detail has made a request for you've had two weeks you had a spokesperson put something out that is false on its face by the way did you approve this statement when it went out uh I don't know if I did or didn't Senator has this spokesperson is he still employed does he still have a job employed Senator so he lied on behalf of the Secret Service he still has a job did your predecessor the former director did she approve this statement Senator uh our comm's team they they send out statements uh they do deconflict them and they put them out did she approve this statement uh I don't know if she did or did not so and you don't know if you did either I I don't recall approving it senator will you commit to provide this Committee in writing every written request for additional resources from the Trump campaign or the Trump detail and every response from Secret Service Senator I will commit to providing responses and getting you the information that you are seeking may ask you something and and who makes the decision to deny those requests did you make that decision which are you talking about the ones that were in the Washington Post yes the process sir is that uh a detail will make a request for either Staffing technical assets uh that is handled between uh the field office and the detail it goes up to a logistics office uh between our okay so there's a bureaucracy is there a decision maker it's not a bureaucracy C give me the person that's a decision maker is there one uh Senator it's a conversation it's not just an absolute yay or so let me tell you what I believe I believe that the Secret Service leadership made a political decision to deny than you Mr chairman director Ro can you put your first poster your first demonstrative backup please put a up please let's make sure everybody can see it this is the photograph I believe that you took your team took of the roof the AGR roof yeah that's the one okay so from this Vantage Point as as the law enforcement who are in those windows as they look left they should be able to see the shooter clearly there on the AGR second floor roof my question is why is there not a secret service counter sniper on that roof so Senator we're um when we post up our is our methodology is to look out look at things that can see in on our protectees uh so that they can provide that coverage but wh why is there not a a secret service counter sniper there with clear line of sight that roof has a clear line of sight to the former president why didn't you put a secret service counter sniper there uh the secret Services counter sniper role is to neutralize those threats that are looking in on us uh from where the protecte is not necessarily uh think maybe you might want to revise that protocol in light of what happened here uh they were protecting the principal and I think in principal got shot I understand that sir so do you think you might want to revise the protocol let me ask you this who was the lead site agent who made the decision to leave the AGR building completely outside of the security perimeter who was that Senator I cannot give you that name this person is operational they're still doing investigations they're still doing protective visits have they being relieved of Duty Senator uh they have not Name by by way why have they not been relieved of Duty they are still cooperating not only being interviewed by the FBI but also by our office of professional responsibility and uh we will let the facts of uh the mission assurance and any further investigations place is it isn't the fact that a former president was shot that a good American is dead that other Americans were critically wounded isn't that enough Mission failure for you to say that the person who decided that that building should not be in the security perimeter probably ought to be stepped down Senator I think you're using the word decided and I think we need to allow the the investigation play out to include okay so who did who did make the decision then if it wasn't the lead site agent who made the decision not to put that in the security permit you're zeroing in on one particular agent I want to find out exactly what was the entire decision process so I think I want to be neutral and make sure that we get to the bottom of it and interview everybody in order to determine if there was more than one person who perhaps exercised bad judgment well sure my question is why don't you relieve everybody of Duty who made bad judgment so yeah you're right I am zeroing in on somebody I'm trying to find somebody who's accountable here and so you're telling me that the person who made the decision not to include this in the perimeter has not been relieved of Duty what about the person who's in charge of the interoperability of radio frequencies between local law enforcement and secret service has that person been relieved of Duty uh no Senator because interoperability is a challenge uh is a greater challenge than just one person on that day we had a counterpart system uh it failed spectacular person who decided who made the decision to send Donald Trump onto stage knowing that you had a security situation has that person been relieved of Duty no sir they haven't because has the person who decided not to pull the former president off of stage when you knew that in your words the locals were working a serious security situation has that person been relieved of Duty uh no sir again I refer you back to my original answer that we are investigating this through emission assurance and as opposed to zeroing in on one what more do you need investigate find out exactly what the decision need to investigate to know that there were critical enough failures that some individuals ought to be held accountable I mean what more do you need to know what I need to know is exactly what happened and I need my investigators to do their job and I cannot cannot put my thumb on the scale otherwise what do you mean put your thumb the objective the object you're asking me Senator to completely make a rush to judgment about somebody failing I acknowledge this was a failure of the is it not primacia that somebody has failed a former president was shot sir this could have been our Texas schoolbook depository I have lost sleep over that for the last 17 days willor I will tell you Senator that I will not rush to judgment that people will be held accountable and I will do so with integrity and not rush to judgment and put people unfairly persecuted unfairly persecuted who are dead we have to be able to have a proper investigation into this Senator you said earlier that you've got to make sure that your Protocols are followed and unless there's a protocol violation people wouldn't be discipline I would just say to you I don't really care that much about your protocols I think if your protocols don't provide for the fact that when a former president is shot when an American is killed when other rally-goers innocent people who just showed up on the day when they are shot at and critically wounded if that isn't a protocol violation Prim of fascia you should revise your protocols Senator I think this is where you and I agree this was a failure and we will get to the bottom of it well I hope you're going to do something about it let me ask you something else the real cleair politics reports this morning that you were directly involved in denying additional security resources and Personnel including counter snipers not just to this event but over the last two years that President's Trump president Trump's team repeatedly asked for these additional resources and you personally were involved in denying them is is that true Senator as I stated earlier that is not true so you never denied any resources to former president Trump Stein uh no not me no sir you weren and you weren't involved in any of that never involved in the decision making no sir I was not let let me ask you just one or two other things here quickly will whistleblowers tell me that in fact law enforcement were stationed to be on that roof and that law enforcement abandoned their post because it was too hot is that accurate Senator I have heard that as well uh again uh they post it up inside and I think moving forward as I as I said earlier we're going to ensure that state and local counter snipers are on roofs but but do you do you know if someone was supposed to be on the roof do you know if someone was in fact that's what the whistleblowers tells me that may or may not be accurate do you know that to be the fact was somebody posted to the roof local law enforcement or whomever uh I do not know that to be a fact well can I ask you why you don't know that again Sor we are looking at this and they should have been on that roof and the fact that they were in the building is something that I'm still trying to uh uh understand I just want to express my frustration director that 17 days or whatever it's been that you that whistleblowers are telling us more than you are and you don't know you haven't ascertained if there was supposed to be law enforcement on the roof that seems like a pretty basic fact I'm also told that local law enforcement suppliers offered the Secret Service drones and you declined them is that true so Senator uh one I've been very transparent and forthcoming uh there your agency has not been transparent and forth forthcoming so please let's not go there I have been forthcoming sir you've been will that remains to be seen you've been on the job a few days so far You' fired nobody now the drones thank you were you offered drones Senator there was an offer to fly a drone on that day and why did you deny it uh again uh I think the ability of local law enforcement provide an asset we probably should have taken them up on it if we if it was offered Senator Cruz thank you Mr ch