LIVE: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies on Trump shooting

un [Music] thank you very much sir ask you a little bit about uh what failings did you see uh based on the some of the tapes of the Secret Service in buler Pennsylvania what did you see sir what what do you think that that Miss Che the secret Serv he the secret service has to answer for right well obviously the big question is how in the world that we leave High Ground onended whether that be the roof now there's talk about a water tower you talk to people on the ground too and they were very concerned just about the security of the whole situation uh unfortunately we had a briefing last week where they called uh us and kind of give us the preliminary information and and right now the sad thing is the more we know the more questions we have it hasn't brought any sort of sense of clarity or understanding uh hopefully we'll get some of that today I I so far they haven't been really forthcoming with what we've asked for already um and so we'll see how today goes but so far hasn't been too good in prepared marks release your chairman asked or suggested that well he said Kimberly cheel should resign I'm wondering what you think about that yeah very much so all last week I was saying she should resign she said she wants to continue to working to make sure this never happens again this isn't the kind of job where you make sure this never happens again you don't get two or three assassination attempts on your job is your job is to make sure that this never ever happens and uh The Honorable thing the only honorable thing for her to do right now would be to resign it's also troubling that it we know this is a massive failure and she's helping leave the investigation into what went wrong wrong uh and so uh it it it it leads not only are we having trouble getting information from it but it it it will put a big question mark on whatever the results of the alleged investigation is for the American people at a time we need very clear transparen uh what do you think uh Mr Biden he's stepping down he's not going to run for re-election Cala Harris some polls have her being even less popular than Joe Biden do you think that she's a strong candidate the strongest candidate the Democrats could come up with well well I'm not obviously not in their strategy sessions uh I think it's going to be hard for them to look past the vice president otherwise they make right now the whole case has been that she's ready to step in in a moment moment's notice uh and so it's going to be hard for them to step fast that otherwise they will reveal I guess the fact that that wasn't true um I think we have a strong a president Trump is definitely has the right platform has demonstrated the uh ability to get the job done and uh I I think he will uh he will do very well against theala thank you sir appreciate your time [Music] [Music] [Music] what [Music] what [Music] a lot ofcy faur we're excited about November [Music] I never said I was going to Z I said that we have 50 different systems uh in each of the states when it comes to presidential elections and choosing and in some of the states there are imped sing someone out remember this to be 14 million people theate for you to resign States I expect there will be we'll see how it develops we're doing our job here in Washington will be handling that I do think it's problematic I think millions of the American people believe that this is problem this is not the way the system is supposed to work the reason it's unprecedent you don't just you know steamroll the rules in the process decide that that's what's everyone are we live in dangerous as you just saw I'm okay guys I need this door can't be blocked and everybody please just go back onto the wall so [Music] yeah he where okay so we do need guys [Music] for no no no I was just trying to yeah I'm [Music] not you [Music] that's your number one [Music] [Music] said for [Music] like the same order [Music] I don't know I don't know I mean you know I no that's my second to last chapter the end of November [Music] Det e e I'm going [Music] cheick cheick [Music] spe [Music] watch [Music] hey [Music] very 3 two one [Music] [Music] comparator tragically did not two others were seriously injured it was a horrifying moment in American history the horror was exceeded only by The Bravery of the law enforcement agents who threw themselves in Harm's Way when shots were fired The Bravery of a crowd unwavering in its refusal to panic and The Bravery of a bloody president Trump refusing to run while we give overwhelming thanks to the individual Secret Service agents who did their jobs under immense pressure this tragedy was preventable the secret Services protective Mission Safeguard us elections through protection of candidates and Nomine the secret service has a zero fail Mission but it failed on July 13th and in the days leading up to the rally the secret service has thousands of employees and a significant budget but it has now become the face of incompetence the committee has a long track record of providing oversight of the Secret Service our predecessors both Jason chaitz and Elijah Cummings among others work together together to issue warnings and recommendations to address obvious shortcomings in the ay's makeup and operations unfortunately those warnings and recommendations have gone unheeded a former president and current candidate for president was shot in the head by a sniper within 500 ft of the podium this is unacceptable and we are concerned the Secret Service lacks the proper management to keep protectees safe from bad factors Americans demand answers but they have not been getting them from the Secret Service we are instead learning about new facts about the events surrounding the attempted assassination every day from whistleblowers and leaks Americans demand accountability but no one is yet to be fired for this historic failure today's witness secret service director Kimberly cheel is here under subpoena to answer questions about how the agency failed president Trump and the victims who attended the rally in Butler Pennsylvania it is my firm belief director cheel that you should resign however in complete Defiance director cheel has maintained she will not tender her resignation therefore she will answer questions today from members of this committee seeking to provide Clarity to the American people about how these events were allowed to transpire we will ask these questions because the Secret Service and its parent agency the Department of Homeland Security have been unwilling to provide answers to the American people DHS has sought to push this hearing to a different time secret service has suggested the hearing occur without media presence and both agencies have provided only shallow explanations to Congress about what happened on July 13th indeed DHS and secret Services lack of communication with the oversight committee required me to issue a subpoena compelling director cheel to attend today and still DHS requested more time to prepare it shouldn't take this much time or Preparation director Tiel to tell the truth and to be transparent with the American people I am thankful to the ranking member Mr Rasin for joining me and insisting that director cheel appear today God knows the ranking member and I disagree on many things but that does not matter today the safety of secret service protectees is not based on their political affiliation and the bottom line is that under director che's leadership we question whether anyone is safe not President Biden not the first lady not the White House and certainly not the presidential candidates the July 13th assassination attempt is one of the darkest days in American political history it represents the ugliest part of what American politics has become hatred of each other and a dangerous turn to extremism before we were Republicans Or democrats we are Americans if we place our political affiliations above our duty and love of country we cannot maintain a country we must ensure our Republic is strong and our Republic cannot be strong when our leadership our elections our institutions and our candidates are threatened by extremism and violence today director Cheeto will answer questions about why she deserves to continue to play a critical role in preserving this country's safety and at the very least what led to the catastrophic deadly events on July 13th in Butler Pennsylvania again I do not believe director Ketel deserves to maintain her position as head of the Secret Service but members of the America and the American people will make their own decisions based on her answers today I urge director cheel to be transparent and forthcoming in her testimony today Americans deserve no we have a duty to find out how this happened and to ensure it never happens again I now yield to ranking member Rasin for his opening statement thank you kindly chairman comr uh Elijah Cummings who beautiful Visage looks down upon us taught us that the way to find common ground in a crisis is to look for the higher ground and last week chairman comr and I came together to reach for that Higher Ground we made a joint statement condemning the mass shooting and assassination attempt against former president Trump as a grave assault on our democracy as we wrote We are united in condemning all political violence I join the good chairman in expressing condolences to the family of Corey comparator and in sending healing wishes to the wounded victims also of this atrocious act of violence some are calling it a miracle that former president Trump escaped this AR-15 attack unlike so many thousands of our fellow citizens who have been killed or seriously wounded in other AR-15 shootings whether this miracle is of Divine Providence or of an adventitious nature will be up to each of us to ponder but our job in Congress is not simply to Marvel at Miracles or count on good luck but to act as public policy legislators to do whatever we can to prevent future political violence attempted assassinations and mass shootings the chairman and I are thus determined to get to the bottom of the stunning security failures that enabled this 20-year-old lone gunman who borrowed his father's AR-15 to perpetrate a mass shooting and assassination attempt at an event protected by the Secret Service as well as state and local police we'll ask hard questions of director cheel today in order to identify and understand the shocking security failures that occurred and to help transform the operations of the Secret Service to prevent prent anything like this from happening again but we can't let ourselves off the hook either dear colleagues what happened in Butler Pennsylvania was a double failure the failure by the Secret Service to properly protect former president Trump and the failure of Congress to properly protect our people from Criminal gun violence we must therefore also ask hard questions about whether our laws are making it too easy for potential assassins to obtain Firearms generally in the AR-15 specifically Mr comparator former president Trump and the other rally attendees wounded in Butler are now members of a club no one wants to belong to the thousands of people who have fallen victim to mass shootings last year we had 655 mass shootings in America defined as four or more people being shot or killed in a single event not including the shooter 712 people died and nearly 2700 people were wounded in these attacks in 2023 mass shootings are commonplace they happen at political rallies and constituent meetings in our elementary schools middle schools and high schools in churches synagogues and mosques in movie theaters and parades in nightclubs and grocery stores in concerts and on street corners here are the worst mass shootings in the last uh 11 or 12 years the list is a grim reminder of the horrific damage and death rought by assault weapons in the AR-15 in particular that have taken the lives of our children parents colleagues and neighbors this is a a a very partial list mass shootings have become so frequent that we don't even hear about them anymore since the mass shooting in Butler there have already been at least 10 additional mass shootings in America Two of which took place the same day that former president Trump was targeted one of the mass shootings on that violent Saturday July 13th happened at 11. at a nightclub in Birmingham Alabama where four people were shot dead and 10 others wounded this means amazingly that the butler attack was not even the deadliest mass shooting to happen in America on that day a weapon that can be used to commit a mass shooting at an event under the full protection of the Secret Service together with dozens of state and local police is obviously an intolerable threat to the rest of us who do not receive such protection and obviously does not belong in our communities it's time to pass Universal background checks and build on this administration's work to ensure that we permanently close the loopholes in The Brady Law for gun show purchases online purchases and Private Sales to prevent those weapons from getting into the hands of people we know to be a threat to others what happened in Butler shows why even closing these loopholes however will not keep assault weapons out of the hands of potential assassins and mass murderers under federal law and in the vast majority of states even young people not old enough to buy a beer legally can legally purchase and own the AR-15 and carried in public the shooter and Butler used his father's AR-15 we have to find the courage and resolve to pass a ban on the AR-15 and other assault weapons a ban is Broad support even the New York Post loudly endorsed such a ban in 2019 we have passed an assault weapons ban before Republicans and Democrats together passed it in 19 1994 alas in 2004 we allowed the ban to expire we know this weapons ban worked one study found that in the decade that followed the Ban's lapse mass shootings went back up 183% and deaths from mass shootings went up 239 per. but even as we change the Secret Service and act to ban weapons of war like the AR-15 we still will have fallen short of our duty if we fail to denounce every instance of politically motiv ated violence in whatever form it takes Republicans and Democrats again have come together to denounce this assassination attempt just as we did the Violent attempts on the lives of our colleagues Representative Steven scales and representative Gabby gords and on Paul Pelosi the husband of speaker Nancy Pelosi who was attacked and brutalized in his home and in the immediate aftermath of the January 6th Mass violence waged against Congress and the vice president and the Constitutional transfer of power Democrats and Republicans alike including Senator McConnell chairman comr and other colleagues all denounced this violent assault on our democracy that wounded approximately 140 officers from the US Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department and I commend them for acting to uh denounce that attack just as Democrats moov swiftly to denounce the attack on Congressman kise scis police scientists political scientists tell us that authoritarian attacks on Democratic institutions begin with political parties refusing to disavow or openly embracing political violence we have to reject that on a strong bipartisan basis as chairman comr and I have done even as we ensure our secret service is up to its vital task of protecting presidents and candidates and as we work to ensure that America the streets of our country are free from the violence of weapons of war thank you Mr chairman I yield back to you thank you gentleman yields back today we are joined by Kimberly cheel who was sworn into office on September 17th 2022 as the Director of the United States Secret Service prior to her appointment director Cheeto was senior director of Global Security at pepsic Co before her role at Pepsi she served 27 years in the Secret Service pursuant to committee rule 9g the witness will please stand and raise her right hand do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God let the record show that the witness answered in the affirmative thank you uh we certainly appreciate you being here today and look forward to your testimony uh we're we normally limit testimony to uh opening statement to five minutes but take all the time that you need uh obviously the rules that that we will uh abide by when you're uh finished with your statement we will then turn to questions each member will have five minutes and just a note to the members I'm going to strictly adhere to the five minutes uh once five minutes is up I will hit the gavel uh if the director is in the process of answering a question we'll certainly let her uh finish her answers and then we will move on we have uh we're going to have about 100% attendance here today plus a few additional uh add-ons so uh this will be a very lengthy hearing and we want to make sure every member uh gets five minutes uninterrupted uh to be able to ask these important questions in this very uh bipartisan hearing today I now recognize director cheel uh for your opening statement thank you good morning chairman Comer ranking member Rasin and distinguished members of the committee my name is Kimberly cheel and I the director of the United States Secret Service I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today the assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump on July 13th is the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades and I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to the family of Corey comparator a former Fire Chief and a hero who was killed in this senseless shooting I would also like to acknowledge those who were injured in Butler David Dutch and James copenh Haven and I wish them a speedy recovery I would be remiss if I did not also extend my condolences on the passing of your colleague congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee Miss Jackson Lee was always engaged in the oversight of the Secret Service and her passing is a great loss to this body the secret service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders on July 13th we failed as a director of the United States Secret Service I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency we are fully Cooper operating with ongoing investigations we must learn what happened and I will move Heaven and Earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again let me State unequivocally nothing I have said should be interpreted to place blame for this failure on our federal state or local law enforcement Partners who supported the Secret Service in Butler we could not do our job without them we rely on the relationships built over years of working together together to secure events and conduct investigations our agents officers and support Personnel understand that every day we are expected to sacrifice Our Lives to execute a no fail Mission as witnessed on July 13th our special agents shielded former president Trump with their own bodies on stage while shots were being fired selflessly willing to make the ultimate sacrifice without hesitation I am proud beond words of the actions taken by the former president's detail the counter sniper team who neutralized the gunman and the Tactical Team who was prepared to act I will be transparent as possible when I speak with you understanding though at times that I may be limited in providing a thorough response in this open setting due to Associated risks with sharing highly sensitive protective methodologies I do not want to inadvertently provide you today with inaccurate information since January 1st 2024 the secret service has successfully secured over 7,500 sites every protective Advance comes with its own set of challenges and requires a customized mitigation strategy including specific assets security plans are multi-layered providing 360 degrees of protection these layers include Personnel Technical and tactical assets which are a force multiplier for our protective posture during every Advance we attempt to strike a balance between enabling the protecte to be visible and our protective requirements to be secure I know this because I have spent 29 years in this agency I came up through the ranks I've secured events for every president since President Clinton supervised on vice president Cheney's detail LED our training center oversaw all of the investigations and protective visits in the state of Georgia supervised on Vice President Biden's detail and the agency's entire protective Mission during the Trump Administration the comprehensive advanced process involves collaborative planning between our secret service the protectees staff local law enforcement partners and the level of security provided for the former president increased well before the campaign and has been steadily increasing as threats evolve the security plan included a full assessment of the Butler Farm Show showgrounds to identify security vulnerabilities and craft a security plan for the protecte attendees and the public immediately following the assassination attempt I directed the activation of my crisis center I assembled my executive team to begin surging more protective resources to the former president and to ensure the wellness of our people post incident all while securing an active crime scene I immediately ordered a re-evaluation of the Republican National Convention security plan and I increase the security posture in the national capital region for all permanent protectees and sites at the same time I initiated a mission Assurance investigation within our agency I have instructed my team that all necessary resources will be dedicated to investigating these manners we will not rest until we have explored every option and we will leave no stone unturned but I want to be clear I am not waiting for these investigations to be completed prior to making changes over the past two weeks we successfully led the planning and execution of the 75th NATO Summit and the Republican National Convention over the next few months we will Implement security plans for the Democratic National Convention the United Nations General Assembly and have already begun planning and coordinating the 2025 inauguration it is now more important than ever for the men and women of the Secret Service to remain resilient and to focus on what is necessary to carry out our critical Mission our agency needs to be adequately resourced in order to serve our current Mission requirements and anticipate future requirements the Secret Service currently protects 36 individuals on a daily basis as well as world leaders who visit the United States like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who arrived in Washington DC today the coming years will bring an unprecedented heavy protection Tempo I have no doubt that the processes that I have imple implemented during my tenure as director in addition to my nearly 30 years of experience in this agency have positioned the Secret Service to be stronger our mission is not political it is literally a matter of life and death and the tragic events on July 13th remind us of that I have full confidence in the men and women of the Secret Service they are worthy of our support and executing our protective Mission I will now answer any questions that the committee may have thank you very much director cheel we'll now begin our our five minutes uh questions and I will begin just for the record the secret service has an annual budget of around 3 .1 billion doll and I believe around 8,000 employees is that correct yes sir obviously there were many security failures on the day of the attempted assassination and leading up to that day let's start with the building that the shooter used to shoot president Trump from at any point Saturday did the Secret Service have an agent on top of that roof sir I'm sure as you can imagine that we are just N9 days out from this uh incident and there's still an ongoing invest vestigation and so I want to make sure that any information that we are providing to you is you can't okay why did the Secret Service not can you answer why the Secret Service didn't place a single agent on the roof we are still looking into the advanced process and the decisions made okay okay let's wasn't that building within the perimeter that should be secured do we agree with that the building was outside of the perimeter on the day of the visit but again that is one of the things that during the investigation we want to take a look at and determine whether or not other decisions should have been made one of the things that you said I believe in an interview that there wasn't an agent on the roof because it was a slope roof is that is that normal and do you fear that that immediately creates an opportunity for future wouldbe assassins to look for a slanted roof I mean it is this is a huge question that every American has why wasn't a secret service agent on the roof and there have been reports that agents were supposed to be on the roof but it was hot that day and they didn't want to be on the roof can you answer any of those questions director so I appreciate you asking me that question chairman uh I should have been more clear in my answer when I spoke about where we placed Personnel in that interview uh what I can tell you is that uh there was a plan in place to provide OverWatch and we are still looking into responsibilities and who was going to provide OverWatch uh but the SEC Secret Service in general not speaking specifically to this incident when we are providing OverWatch whether that be through counter snipers or other technology prefer to have sterile rooftops did the Secret Service use any drones for surveillance that day so again I'm not going to get into specifics of that day in itself but there are times uh during a security plan that the Secret Service does deploy an asset like a drone there were reports that the shooter used a drone just a few hours before for the rally start time is that accurate I have heard those same reports and again am waiting for the final report you know if you can't answer the question that's your answer but can you answer this do you know do you know I'm not asking yes or no but do you know if the shooter used a drone before the shooting that information has been passed to us from the FBI how many Secret Service agents were assigned to Pres president Trump on the day of the rally again I'm not going to get into the specifics of the numbers of personnel that we had there but we feel that there was a sufficient number of Agents assigned there are reports that several agents assigned to the rally on July 13th were were temporary agents agents not normally assigned to president Trump is that accurate what I can tell you is that the agents that were assigned to former president trump our Secret Service agents that provide close protection to him and that was what was actual on that day how many temporary agents were there that day quite frequently sir during campaign events uh the Secret Service utilizes uh Agents from HSI or the department of homeand security you don't know how many supplement our plan have the investigators reconstructed the shooters precise movements over the past days weeks and months so again we need we need to have confidence that if the FBI is leading this investigation that they're leading a credible investigation because there some of us sitting up here today that don't have a lot of confidence in the FBI so I will repeat the question have the investigators reconstructed the shooters precise moments over the past days weeks and months I understand your question chairman and I share your concerns about wanting to make sure that we have factual information the FBI is conducting a criminal investigation the Secret Service is conducting an internal investigation there are a number of oig Investigations and there is the external investigation the president last question for me before July 13th had the Trump detail requested additional resources what I can tell you is that for the event on July 13th the details that were requ the the assets that were requested for that day were given okay my time is expired chair now recognize as ranking member asking for five minutes thank you Mr chairman um it's it's been um reported that before former president Trump got up on the stage at around 6: p.m on Saturday July 13th that the local police had identified and even photographed a man who was acting suspiciously and this man who turned out to be the gunman had been flagged as a Potential Threat is that accurate what I can say is that the individual was identified as suspicious so he was known to be suspicious before former president Trump took the stage that is the information I have received why was he allowed to take the stage with a suspicious person having been identified in the crown so I appreciate the question and I'd like to make two points if the detail had been past information that there was a threat the detail would never have brought the former president out onto stage that is what we do and that is who we are we are charged with protecting uh all all of our protes so you distinguish between someone who is suspicious and someone who's threatening is that right I do there are a number of times at protective events where suspicious people are identified and those individuals have to be investigated and determined what is it that identifies that person as suspicious so did you deny um a request for additional resources that had been made by uh the Trump campaign there were no assets denied for that event in Butler on the 13th I see so you're saying there were requests made for additional assistance for other specific events rather than for the campaign as a whole is that right I'm sorry I'm not understand well you seem to say that there were not additional resources requested for that event and uh forgive me for being unfamiliar with this is it requested event by event or is it requested just in general for the campaign so if I can explain the advanced process uh when the when a an event or an venue is identified by in this case campaign staff uh then the campaign staff works together with Secret Service agents who go out and conduct in advance generally that is a five-day time period uh where those discussions are had about what the perimeter is going to look like what the size of the event is what the venue is and then from there uh there is a request made uh to mitigate potential risk and threat and I'm saying that on that day the requests that were pushed forward were granted so the Secret Service did not know that the gunman actually had a weapon before President Trump was allowed to get up on the stage to the best of our knowledge and the facts that we have at this point that is correct um so can you answer this question which I think is on the mind of most Americans thinking about this how can a 20-year-old with his father's AR-15 assault weapon climb on to a roof with a direct 150 yard line of sight to the speaker Podium without the Secret Service or local police stopping him so again sir I will say we are nine days out from this event and I would like to know those answers as well which is why we are going through these investigations to be able to determine that fully okay um it's been reported that the shooter was not carrying a driver's license or any form of identification um they had no idea who he was but then he was quickly identified I think within 30 minutes by using the serial number on the AR-15 um under a tracing system that is now controversial some people say we should get rid of it some people want to keep it but is that right that the serial number was the key information which led to the identification of the shooter that is my understanding sir yes okay um if if an American citizen were just to stop you and say director cheel we support your work to the tune of billions of dollars and thousands and thousands of employees what went wrong what would you say again knowing that we're nine days out I would say as I have said from the very outset I accept responsibility for this tragedy uh we are going to look into how this happened and we are going to take corrective action to ensure that it never happens again well I appreciate that um and and I hope you will act with Vigor and focus and intensity and it seems you understand the the gravity and solemnity of this to the American people um millions and millions of Americans don't feel safe with all the AR-15s out there we thought at least the president of the United States or a former president of the United States would be safe but now that's not even clear Mr chairman I yield back to you gentlemen years back chair I recognize chairman of the house Judiciary Committee Mr Jordan from Ohio thank you Mr chairman director were you guessing or lying the day after president Trump is shot Secret Service spokesman Anthony gami said quote the assertion that a member of the former president's security team requested additional security resources that the US Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false the next day secretary my orcus said that is an unequivocally false assertion we had not received any request for additional security measures that were rebuffed but five days later The Washington Post said this top officials repeatedly rejected requests from Donald Trump security detail for more Personnel the next day the New York Times said this Mr gami acknowledged that the Secret Service had turned down some request for additional Federal Security assets for Mr Trump's detail so which is it because both statements can't be true were you guessing or lying when you said you didn't turn down requests from president Trump's detail neither sir and I appreciate the question what what were you doing because those statements don't don't jve so what I can tell you is that for the event in Butler there were no requests that were denied as far as request well maybe they got tired of asking maybe you turned them down so darn much they said not worth asking how many times did you turn them down ahead of that I think that it is important to distinguish between what some people may view as a denial of an asset or a request Mr goami your spokesperson he said he acknowledged the Secret Service had turned down some requests I'm asking how many a denial of a request does not equal a vulnerability well tell me what it is there are a number of ways that threats and risks can be mitigate mitigated with a number of different assets whether that be through Personnel whether that be through technology or other well tell the committee which it was they asked for additional help in some form or another you told them no how many times did you tell them no and what did you tell them no to again I cannot speak to specific incidents but I can tell you in general terms uh the Secret Service uh is judicious with their resources based on what is some request mean how many times some indicate requests is plural so more than once they ask for additional help and you turned them down what they asked for and how many times did you turn them down pretty basic questions so again without having all of the details in front of me sir what I can tell you is that there are times you didn't get briefed on how many times you turned down the Trump detail when they asked for additional help I'm I'm sorry you didn't get briefed on that before you came to this hearing knowing you were going to get asked that question what I can tell you is that in generic terms when people when when details make a request there are times that there are alternate ways to cover off on that threat thre or that risk that's not what he said he said they were denied certain requests some request this is your spokesperson not me talking this is the Secret Service talking and it what a change from absolutely false unequivocally false to oh by the way there were some times where we didn't give them what they wanted that's a huge change in five days and the fact that you can't answer how many times you did that that's pretty darn frustrating not just for me but for for the country I hear your frustration let me ask you this were any of the those requests denied to president Trump's detail after you knew about the Iranian threat what I can tell you again I don't know the specifics is that there are times when we can fill a request it doesn't necessarily have to be with a Secret Service uh asset or resource we can fill that request with locally available assets you spoke to anyone at the White House since July 13th yes I have who'd you talk to I have briefed the president and the vice president talk to the first lady no I have not talked to the White House staff anyone in White House communications no I have not have you talked to the counter sniper who took the shot that took out the bad guy yes I have and can you tell us about that conversation I would not want to reveal conversations that I've had with my employees but that's exactly the kind of information the American people want to know American people who pay your salary I understand this is an ongoing investigation and I who's all doing the investigating at Secret Service I know the Inspector General but is there also an internal investigation in addition to the Inspector General we are conducting a mission Assurance investigation internally yes you know what it looks like director looks like you won't answer some pretty basic questions it looks like you got a 9% raise and you cut Corners when it came to protecting one of the most important individuals most well-known individuals on the planet a former president likely the guy's going to be the next president looks like you guys were cutting Corners that's what it looks like to me is that true I am here today because I want to answer questions but I also want to be CAU you might want to but you haven't answered I don't think you've answered one question from the chairman the ranking member or me we got a lot of other people asking we'll see if your if your record improves but right now you haven't answered I don't think any questions how you back gentlemen you back chair iiz Miss Norton from Washington DC thank you Mr chairman um in the summer of 1963 as a law student I traveled to the South to work in the Civil Rights Movement when I arrived in Jackson Mississippi I was met by a civil rights activist who showed me around town and tried to convince me to work in Jackson that summer I recall talking with him and his wife about the raw at atmosphere in Jackson later that day he took me to the bus station for my trip to my assignment that night he was assassinated outside his home his name was megar EVS I condemned the political violence it is a threat to democracy I want to discuss one of the roots of political violence guns for years Republicans including a member of this committee have introduced legislation and amendments to repeal or block the District of Colombia gun violence protection laws including its bans on assault weapons and large capacity magazines the shooter at the Trump rally used the mass Shooters gun of choice an assault weapon specifically an AR15 style rifle and presumably a large capacity magazine which is defined in DC as a magazine that can hold more than 10 bullets under current DC law DC does not recognize Concealed Carry Permits issued by other jurisdictions but it does uh issue Concealed Carry Permits to both residents and non-residents however DC imposes a number of requirements on concealed carry applicants including suitability such as not having exhibited a propensity for violence or instability moreover DC residence where where the uh restricts where the guns can be carried such as a political demonstration near the White House and Naval Observatory or near people people under Secret Service protection provided the permit holder has been given notice this week the house is expected expected to consider the fiscal year 2025 financial services and general government Appropriations Bill uh this Republican drafted bill would allow an individual with a permit to carry a concealed handgun issued by state or territory uh to carry a concealed handgun in DC regardless of that jurisdiction's permit requirements a republican has filed an amendment to that provision to allow such an individual to carry a magazine of any size with that handgun in short the pending Bill and Amendment would allow any person with a carry permit issued by another jurisdiction to carry a concealed handgun with a magazine of any size in any location in the District of Columbia the Secret Service is responsible for protecting a large number of people and facilities in DC director CH chel uh would Secret Service protect these NDC be safer or less safe if people who have exhibited a propensity for violence or instability could carry a concealed uh concealed handguns NDC I think being a secret service agent and an officer or a law enforcement officer in any state is difficult they are required to make decisions and snap judgments uh in the blink of an eye and I think that the officers and the Agents that work here in the DC area do a great job of monitoring uh the public and reacting to threats as appropriate when they uh arise would would would see Secret Service protes in DC be safer or less safe if people in DC could carry concealed handguns with large capacity magazines I think ma'am that we work in parameters where we travel around North America and the rules on open carry and concealed carry are different from state to state and that is part of what the Secret Service takes into account when we develop a security plan obviously anyone that comes into one of our protective sites we would establish magnetometer support metal detectors that Personnel would have to process through eliminating that potential uh would Secret Service protees and DC be safer or less safe if more people could carry handguns uh in DC I think again as I stated ma'am we want to make sure that we provide a safe environment for all of our protectees and whatever measures we would need to put in place uh for a secure site we would do so I you back gentle ladies times expired chair I recognize the chairman of the house intelligence committee Mr Turner from Ohio director cheel your opening statement indicates that the Secret Service constructed a security plan for the site in in Pennsylvania I'm assuming that security plan would also include the security footprint for the site but it also would be based upon a threat assessment for the risk threats associated with Donald Trump and the crowd attendance would it not include a threat assessment yes it would so that threat assessment as we know um basically would have started with there a generalized threat against Donald Trump because he is a presidential candidate then it would have gone to he's a former president and he gets uh secur coverage just as Bush Clinton Carter and Obama do and then you also have the heightened political environment even for those it's clear that the security footprint that the threat assessment was insufficient which permitted that a 20-year-old to actually enter with the weapon and shoot Donald Trump but I want to ask you about two other aspects of the threat assessment it is known and public that Iran is a threat risk for Donald Trump there're a threat risk for John Bolton former Secretary of State Pompeo and Donald Trump because they have indicated they want to assassinate them as a result of retaliation for the killing of salomani that is both for Iran a generalized threat they're targeting these individuals but also most recently a specific threat to Donald Trump himself now I want to uh enter into the record by UC um a Department of Justice public affairs release a CNN article a um an article from Fox News and an article from CBS all of which acknowledge objection to order that this threat exists for Donald Trump from Iran and that there are specific threats most recently that have been acknowledged director Cheeto have you read the intelligence of the journalized threat to Donald Trump by Iran as a result of their desire to retaliate for the killing of Salon excuse me some Salon I have um have you read or been briefed about the intelligence of the specific recent threat to Donald Trump from Iran yes I have director Ray when we were getting our briefing indicated that he thought the threat assessment should have included this threat from Iran is it your testimony today that the threat assessment since you've read this intelligence was sufficient to protect him from this threat from Iran my testimony today is that the information that we had at the time was known uh that was it sufficient director cheel was it sufficient for the Iranian threat that you said you have read the intelligence briefings for that information was passed to well I'm not asking the bureaucratic issue of who did it get passed around to director cheel was it sufficient for the specific and generalized threat to Donald Trump's life from Iran yes I do believe it was director cheel is an Iranian assassin more capable than a 20-year-old sir I think we've acknowledged that there was gaps and a failure that day we when I raised this issue with director Ray he was incensed he he was shocked that the threat assessment of Iran did not seem to be as we and I discussed baked in to your security footprint and your threat assessment and he went on to say that the generalized threat that he has told the whole country that we are under from a terrorist a potential terrorist threat he has said we're under the highest Threat Level since 911 that the lights are flashing red and he has specifically indicated that people have crossed the southern border as a result of the Biden administration's policy and that there are in our country today terrorists and individuals who are affiliated with terrorist groups and organizations that would be a heightened threat environment director Cheeto would it not yes in his public statements he has said he is making these statements because he wants people to take them into consideration in threat assessments specifically now that would be a threat not just to Donald Trump but it would also be a threat to the crowd there wouldn't it yes are Isis terrorists and Al-Qaeda terrorists and international groups and terrorists more capable than a 20-year-old in pulling off either mass shooting or an assassination of Donald Trump sir again there was clearly a breakdown and a failure that day have you read the intelligence of the terrorists that are currently in the United States that director Ray speaks and those individuals that are here that are affiliated with terrorist groups and organizations that are in the process as director Bray said of representing a significant threat of a terrorist attack occurring in the United States I have read reports that apply specifically to the secret Services Mission director Cheeto because Donald Trump is alive and thank God he is you look incompetent if Donald Trump had been killed you would have looked culpable there is no aspect of this that indicates that there has been any protection to Donald Trump the threat was was identified before he took sta the stage and the shooter was only killed after Donald Trump himself was killed not only should you resign if you refuse to do so President Biden needs to fire you because his life Donald Trump's life and all the other people which you protect are at risk because you have no concept of the aspect that the security footprint needs to be correlated to the the threat I go back chair now recognize Mr Lynch from Massachusetts thank you Mr chairman uh director cheel there were multiple security failures at the former president's rally in in Butler Pennsylvania first of all there was a failure to isolate the podium from exposure to direct fire do we know who M who made that decision to to allow that that rooftop to remain as a an unprotected area do we know who came up with that security plan that that uh omitted that sir I don't have uh a specific person to identify for you okay well that's what I'm looking for so let's let's move on uh there's also breakdown in Security in Failure to confront the shooter uh over an hour before the former president began his remarks when the shooter was identified as a Person of Interest um what particularly allowed agents or or law enforcement to identify him as a person of interest so I appreciate the question and again I will say that we are nine days out and there are multitude of interviews that are still taking place okay so did he have a rangefinder there were some reports that that the individual had a rangefinder that would that would certainly raise my suspicion uh did he have have a rangefinder yes he did but may I explain that at a number of our sites especially when you're at outdoor venues uh a rangefinder is not a prohibited item it is sometimes an item that is brought in by individuals if you're going to be did anybody anybody confront them on that anybody ask him questions what are you doing with the rangefinder anybody confront him on on his presence where where he was in proximity to the president so again to my knowledge I believe that that was the process that was taking place was to locate the individual did they did they confront him did they go up to him did they talk to him I do not have those details at this time those are important details uh it was also a failure to communicate between law enforcement to act quickly uh upon information provided by either local law enforcement or rally attendees that the suspect was positioned on the roof there were minutes of delay uh before before um any any meaningful action was taken even though he was several hundred feet from the podium and uh this was obviously minutes before the the shooting um let me ask you there was considerable delay in removing the president uh from the podium after the shooting began he got shot in the air it was still a over a minute before he was removed from the stage meanwhile this shooter had multiple clips several Clips he got off eight shots and he had the capacity and the ability if he was not neutralized to to basically mold down that whole Secret Service Detachment as well as the president um what from your own investigation uh caused that that delay under the circumstances what I can tell you is that when the agents uh identified that the shooting was taking place in under 3 seconds they threw themselves on top I understand that there was heroism there no question about it no question about it but protocol would indicate and these are you know these are uh the the the opinions of various former Secret Service agents people who have uh done this work in the past that over a minute of exposure on on that Podium with with a a shooter with a high-capacity weapon who had already wounded the president and and and could have got off we don't know how many more rounds um and yet the president remained exposed even though he was joined in that exposure by the Secret Service in their heroic acts it just uh it I don't know if there's a good explanation for that our Personnel created a body bunker on top of the president I get shielding him yeah this was this was an AR-15 uh style weapon that would have made pretty quick work if if he was determined and able to do so this is not the first investigation that we've had of the Secret Service during my time here on this committee and the last one we had uh our previous investigation determined that the Secret Service was experienced a staffing crisis that poses perhaps the greatest threat to the agency and that's a quote is that Staffing crisis still in place is that still something that you deal with on a daily basis as of today the secret service has just over 8,000 employees we continue to hire uh knowing that we need to ensure that we keep Pace with what would be the full complement of of and gentlemen times expired but please answer the question yeah I'm sorry what would be the full compliment that you're looking for you've got 8,000 and how many how many would be a full compliment for for the service so we are we are still striving towards a number of 95 uh 100 employees approximately in order to be able to meet future and emerging needs okay thank you Mr chairman for your courtesy I yield back chair recognizes Dr Fox from North Carolina thank you Mr chairman director cheel what grade would you give the secret Services performance in Butler Pennsylvania on July 13 as I've stated ma'am this was clearly a failure I would grade the agents and officers who selflessly threw themselves in front of the president and neutralize the threat and a I think that we need to examine the events that led up to uh and prior to that day you stated in 2021 that the secret service has a zero fail Mission it's clear that the events of July 13 show a Cascade of failures that caused Cory comparator his life nearly cost former president his life and injured David Dutch and James copenhaver when an agency fails spectacularly at its Mission those responsible must be held accountable and the problems must be fixed so they cannot happen again why should the American people or the officials you're responsible for protecting have confidence in your ability to lead the Secret Service after such a spectacular failure I appreciate the question and I am committed to finding answers so that we can make the agency stronger after this you said on July 15 that the buck stops with me how are you taking accountability for the secret Services failures during the July 13 assassination attempt on President Trump I have taken accountability and I will continue to take accountability I am responsible for leading the agency and I am responsible for finding the answers to how this event occurred and making sure that it doesn't happen again so I would like to explore how you got the job as director of the United States Secret Service is it typical for the director of The Secret Service to be recommended for the role at the behest of a president's family and Senior staff perhaps at the request of Joe Biden or Anthony Bernal I got the job as a director of The Secret Service because I spent 20 7 years in an agency with a mission that I absolutely love I started my career in Detroit I worked my way up through investigations and protection were you was there competition for the position you would have to ask those who were involved in the interview process uh but you think you are the best person in the country to head the Secret Service I think that I am the best person to lead the secret service at this time the Secret Service receives billions in funding each year as has been explained by my colleagues here in fact the incre you've had an increase in real terms of 55% as you're no doubt aware Staffing levels for those assigned to protect the president former presidents and other senior officials has decreased by about 350 between 2014 and today clearly a lack of Financial Resources not to blame for the staffing shortage in 2022 the Secret Service saw nearly half its Workforce leave in one year and during the same year it was ranked dead last among law enforcement agencies in the best places to work in the federal government can you explain why your agency was so poorly rated and why so many staff left in just one year so with all due respect I uh dispute the the statistic of half of the employees leaving uh in 2022 I think that that has been inaccurate data that's been reported out there but what I can tell you is as I have returned as the Director of the agency we have had an increase in hiring and Staffing and an increase in resources and we are committed to continue to hire uh so that we can be staffed appropriately to meet the dynamic mission that we have well uh you may want to dispute it but it's out there my understand given the high-profile high-profile failures and rotten culture at the Secret Service during your nearly two-year turn tenure why should the American people have any confidence in your ability to lead the Secret Service to perform its zero fail mission to protect our senior leaders the secret service has an incredible culture our men and women Place service over self they come in every day willing to risk their lives for our protective Mission and they work investigations that uh thwart people who would do harm to children uh child exploiters we have an incredible Mission and our culture is we will get the job done no matter what well those on the front lines certainly have a great culture and they were willing to risk their lives for president Trump but I'm not sure the leadership at the agency has this right kind of culture I yield back Mr chairman chair now recognize Mr Conley from Virginia thank you Mr chairman well I hope the American people do appreciate the incredible daily risks Secret Service agents take on our behalf you mentioned there are 36 regular clients you've got that you protect constantly but I was participating in the NATO Summit just two weeks ago we had 32 heads of government and heads of state plus visiting heads of state and heads of government presumably you provided protection for all of them that is correct just just saying um help us understand however I I I I will stipulate that there there's ongoing investigation you don't want to go into too much detail on that until you've been able to ascertain all the facts and analyze what they mean you can understand however the anxiety we and the American public have about how could this happen and how can we ensure it can't recur now there are some things my friends uh uh on one particular side of the aisle don't really want to talk about like AR-15s and access to them by a 20-year-old or anybody for that matter presumably uh director cheel the ubiquity of weapons guns in America especially assault weapons or semi-automatic weapons that's helped your job and the mission of your agencies right it's it's made it less complicated isn't that true I'm sorry I'm not understanding your question real simple more guns especially Dangerous Ones have made your job protecting people easier is that not right I think at uh from every director cheetah this is simple English more guns are do they make your job more complicated or less complicated in protecting these 36 clients and visiting heads of state and heads of government that come to Washington I think the Secret Service needs to take into account I didn't ask that they I'm sorry I asked simple question which deserves a simple answer the ibiquity of guns dangerous weapons in America like AR-15s has that made your job that is to say the mission of the Secret Service easier or more difficult I think the threat environment for protecting our uh Secret Service protect EES is always difficult and that's Dynamic and it's always evolving we stipulate it's always difficult I again this is a simple one do does the ubiquity of guns make your job easier or more difficult today I understand the Second Amendment rights of individual I didn't ask that question I'm not questioning the Second Amendment I'm asking a simple analysis director cheel and I can tell you you're not making my job easier in terms of assessing your qualification for continuing on as director please answer the question you're the head of the Secret Service you're speaking on behalf of 8,000 members who put their lives on the line we just had a failure by your own admission to guns make your job easier or harder I think the job of the Secret Service is difficult on every day and we need to make sure that we are mitigating all threats whether that be that isn't my question that is not my question and now I think you're evading the answer which is not a hard one I am sorry that you feel that way sir H how else could I feel director cheel when you're clearly avoiding a direct the answer to a very simple declarative question I'm we almost lost a presidential candidate the other day a 20-year-old had access to his father's AR-15 and got on top of a roof within 500 yards or feet of the podium and I'm asking you did the availability of that AR-15 which is replicated all across America make your job harder or easier and you're not willing to answer that question and you think and and you wonder why we might have a lack of confidence and you continue to build to direct this agency I understand your question and that's the environment well if you understand my question why not answer it because it's the environment that the Secret Service Works in every day that that doesn't tell me anything that's the that's the environment we work in I had an I had an attack on my office a year ago I know a little bit about violence too he came to kill me when he couldn't he beat one of my staff is eight times with a baseball bat on the head we live with the threat of violence but a simple answer from the director of The Secret Service would be helpful and I'm sorry you've chosen to evade it I yeld back chair I recogniz Mr grman from Wisconsin thank you um when this guy uh took the shots he climbed a ladder to get on the roof correct I'm unable to answer details of exactly how the individual access the roof at this time do you know when the uh if he did use the ladder do you know when the ladder was placed there was the ladder there two days before just the night before do you have any information at all as to when the L letter got there I would like to be able to answer those questions the FBI is still conducting an investigation how did the rifle get to the to the rough again sir at this time on unable to answer questions to provide clear have they cleaned the roof since the since the assassination attempt have they cleaned the roof right has anything been done to the roof is it just like it was you know whatever 10 days ago or or or not has anything been done to the roof I I don't have an answer for that okay um were president Trump's normal agents normally assigned to him they that that day yes there was no these were the same agents that were always there yes sir the people that are assigned to his detail were working on that day okay there there's stuff on the internet that says they were not there that day but these are the same agents who are routinely there yes sir okay uh do we know which agents fired the shots that finally took down the potential assassin yes sir I do can you give us those names or background of those agents I would not uh offer their name up in this setting but it was one of our technical uh officers our counter snipers okay so can we privately get those names the committee I I am certain that we can make names available privately okay um do we know where all the shots landed how first of all how many shots did did the potential assassin how many shots uh came out of the rifle so again I would hesitate to offer that information as the FBI is conducting an investigation have we got the bullets from all the shots again that would be the responsibility of the FBI to collect that evidence okay um do we have any do we have the correspondence um from the shooter has that been recovered from his phone whatever again I would have to defer you to the FBI for details on that investigation okay um you've spent some time uh trying to change the makeup of the Secret Service okay you feel there whatever too high a percentage are men um does this affect at all uh who you are hiring for the Secret Service I've spent my time as the Director trying to increase the number of people that we hire in the Secret Service so that we have the best and the brightest and that's been my concentration as the Director okay you ever hiring uh hiring not hiring men because of your desire to hit certain targets I am hiring the best qualified candidates that put in an application that want to work for our great organization okay um next next question uh the shooter obtained a direct sight of of President Trump from from uh the position on the rooftop I assume that is not something that should ever happen it should never happen do you want to elaborate a little on how that happened or what you wish you had done differently or would do differently next time there's a trump rally again sir the facts of this uh particular event are still unfolding uh nine days there have been a number of reports that have been out there so I do not want to provide an in information that perhaps would contradict something that has been erroneously reported or uh is not factual but there clearly was a mistake and we will take every effort to make sure that this never happens again could you elaborate why you want onethird of the uh uh Secret Service to be women I've never stated that I want onethird of the Secret Service to be women 30% or something you had some Target no um okay would jam yield sure I'll yield what was director what was the ronly reported you said to Mr Gran's question you said something was erroneously reported what are you referring to I'm referring to his question was in in the context of the shooter using a ladder to get on the building what was erroneously reported cuz you won't tell us anything but you tell us something that wasn't reported accurately I'm saying sir that there have been a number of reports that are out there that have been speculation and until we have the actual facts I don't want to report anything that would contradict uh speculation that has been out there thank gentleman F chair recognize Mr Chris morte from Illinois thank you Mr chair thank you Mr ranking member for bringing us together this morning one question I get asked a lot from my constituents is what can Congress actually do to stop this from happening again and I'd like to share a graphic from a very recent study conducted by Professor Robert Pape a world-renowned expert in combating political violence the graphic shows that 74% of Americans want this Congress to come together to denounce political violence of all stripes and you can tell it's AC cross party lines um I commend the chair and ranking member for putting out the statement the other day condemning political violence and to further this effort um I'd like to ask all my colleagues to join Dr Brad wstr and me in introducing a resolution that we think can secure unanimous house passage in deploring and condemning political violence and we will be circulating that resolution shortly director cheel as you know the shooter began shooting at 611 p.m. Eastern on July 13th NBC reported that at 5:51 p.m. 20 minutes before before the shooting began the state police informed the Secret Service of their concern now the rally was not paused at that point correct no and according to NBC just 2 minutes later at 5:53 p.m. the Secret Service notified its snipers about the gunman the rally wasn't paused at that point either correct no let me show you some video footage by rally goers if you could play the video on the screen up here this was taken two minutes before the shooting started if you could turn up the volume weal right here on the roof on the roof here ma'am that doesn't look like suspicious behavior that looks like threatening behavior to me and the rally wasn't paused at that point either correct I can tell you as I stated earlier sir that the moment that the shift uh surrounding the president were aware of an actual threat that's a threat right there the guy's on the roof and everybody's yelling at him yes and and directing the officer's attention to him the rally was not paused at that point correct we are currently still combing through Communications and when Communications were passed well I can point you to this communication is 2 minutes before the shots started ringing Out director cheel yes or no was there ever a moment where the Secret Service actually considered pausing the rally the Secret Service would have paused the rally had they known or been so the answer is an actual threat the answer is no correct I can I can speak to you in generalities no no I don't want generalities I want specific the answer is no you did not consider pausing the valy correct the people that are in charge of protecting the president on that day would never bring the former president out if there was a threat that had been identified well they did because we've now identified three points in the in the 20 minutes before the shooting that the threat emerged let me point you to something else uh which is the building that the shooter was perched on seen here this building is called the AGR building I'm sure that you're familiar with it um it's no more than 150 yards from the stage where Donald Trump stood yet the security perimeter was drawn such that the AGR building was placed outside of IT director cheel according to the Washington Post the AR AR-15 styled rifle used in the shooting had had a range of 400 to 600 yards and therefore the AGR building is was clearly within rifle range of the stage correct yes NBC news has reported that in the days before the rally the Secret Service had identified the building as a vulnerability that required special attention correct that's reporting from NBC yes so I am still looking into an active investigation I know but it's been nine days I mean you you should you should know that right and yet despite the fact that the AGR building was in rifle range of the stage and it was flagged as a vulnerability this building was put outside of the secret Services sec security perimeter and I I I respectfully submit the security Secret Service must expand its security perimeter to account for the kinds of weapons that can be used outside the perimeter to endanger the protectees inside the perimeter ma'am let me turn your attention to some conspiracy theories that have been uh circulating and ask you to uh comment on them first you have not found evidence that the incident was a stage shooting right correct and you haven't found evidence that this was a result of a conspiracy of high ranking government officials correct correct and you have not found evidence that this incident was in fact directed or perpetrated by a foreign state or entity right and and that's the last question but I'll let the director answer that please not at this time thank you I yield back gentleman's time expired chair I recognize Mr cloud from Texas uh thank you I just wanted to confirm there was only one counter sniper who took one shot is that we had multiple counter sniper teams Avail yeah on the premises but is is only one took one shot is that correct or only one correct okay um how many spint shell casings were found on the roof again I would have to defer you to the FBI's criminal investigation okay word is is that the car was rugged with explosives again sir I'd have to defer you to the FBI's investigation okay you're you're not curious about you don't communicate with them no okay okay uh CNN reported that the Secret Service did not sweep the building the shooter was used to shoot president Trump and other attendees is that true or false so we are conducting a mission Insurance investigation and will depend on the information that we obtain from our investigations okay um secret service knew there was a suspicious person anywhere from8 minutes before President walked on stage to 30 to 60 minutes we have different reports was President Trump or his team notified of the threat I think there's a difference and a distinction between suspicious suspicious person and threat yeah so uh we are going back and looking at communications to know when the information about a suspicious person was passed to Secret Service Personnel okay but was President Trump or his team notified again we are going back and looking to make sure that we have the exact information of when those notifications were made and who those notifications were made to okay okay it I think it's troubling for a lot of us that the number one question everyone in America is wondering is why was the roof left open and after 9 days we should at least maybe have a little bit of that information and when you come to this Committee hearing and you don't have anything to say about that it's it's very very troubling um did you review the security plan for this event I personally do not review security plans for events that take place across the country any of them we have a number of events who's the top level official who re reviews the security plans there there's a number of people that review security plans who's ultimately responsible for signing off on a security plan it it's a conjunction of personnel uh there are people on the ground there are supervisors on the detail there are people at headquarters so there's not one person who says okay this is good it's copesthetic we're going for it I think much in the way that we build our security plans where they are multi there teams working different aspects of it but ultimately isn't there an individual who signs off on the plan much like how we design our security plans they're multi-layered there are multiple layers so there's no accountability there is accountability sir there's this is this is whe whether it's the FBI or fouchy or any It's Time After Time After Time these multiple layers of accountability turn into layers of plausible deniability in agency after agency after agency that's got to be fixed because you keep coming here and expecting yes you're saying I'm responsible but and you're accountable for it but then there's no there's nothing what do you mean by that I mean you're you're saying you're going to keep your job right I assure you sir that if we determine through the course of our investigation that someone or people need to be held accountable we will do so what level of if President Biden God forbid had been shot and killed would you think that was worthy of resignation I would do the same thing that I'm doing here where I would want to make sure that we are conducting an investigation that there is continuity in that investigation and that we could find the answers assassination of somebody under your DET under your details worthy of resignation I think that this event was tragic and deserves answers the thing that you you've said so far is that you want to make sure that this never happens again the thing is everyone in America knows that's not the job description that you're tasked with the job description your task was is to make sure it never happens period um one of your goals in the Strategic plan is to Champion diversity Equity inclusion and accessibility you've accomplished the accessibility part um what standards do you keep the same standards for all applicants and all are does every secret service agent meet the same qualifications or do you have different standards for different people yes sir everyone who moves through the application process has to meet the same standards to become a special agent okay the the trouble I think we're having with right now so far you gave a lame excuse for sloped roof you said that local law enforcement's job was to cover up the uh building before backtracking on that we were told that President Trump's team did not ask ask for security before you backtracked on that you haven't provided the audio recording that this committee the chairman s uh requested that was due Thursday um you didn't give us Advanced copy of your opening statement but yet there was reporting on it somewhere else uh there seems to be more information from YouTube videos than you're able to provide for us and it it begs the question to anyone you're in charge of the investigation of your own failure so how is anybody in America supposed to be able to trust the results of that investigation as being anything transparent and genuine that's the last question but please feel free to answer the question director sir I've been a secret service agent for nearly 30 years I have led with integrity and I follow our core values of Duty Justice honor loyalty and courage and I am doing that in this case and I assure this committee that I will provide answers when we have a full and complete report in addition to co operating with all of the other investigations that are ongoing chair now recognize Mr Conor from California thank you Mr chair I want to thank the chair and the ranking member for convening this hearing on a bipartisan basis I joined them in condemning the horrific assassination attempt on the former president I am relieved for the sake of the country that he wasn't seriously hurt and that he survived and my thoughts with him and his family during such a traumatic event I also want to express condolences to Corey comor family and uh recognize his heroism in Saving his uh daughter's lives and to the victims of that awful event now director K would you agree that this is the most serious security lapse since President Reagan was shot in 1981 of the secret service yes sir I would and you know do you know what Stuart Knight did when he was in charge at the time of the Secret Service you know what he did afterwards he remained on duty he resigned he resigned and steuart Knight was not a Democratic appointee or republican appointee look I'm not questioning your judgment I and I just don't think this is partisan if you have an assassination attempt on a president a former president or uh a candidate you need to resign that's what Stuart Knight did he was a Republican appointee and he took responsibility and I I think you need to reflect this is not a question of you it's a question of the American people you cannot go leading a Secret Service Agency when there is an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate I would I would say that about anyone who uh is and so I guess my question to you is what's the difference between your position and what Stuart Knight did what I will tell you sir is that I am dedicated to finding the answers to what happened and like every secret service agent we don't Sher our responsibilities I will remain on and be responsible to the agency to this committee to the former president and to the American public but is is there a reason you wouldn't just do what St Knight did after the Reagan assassination attempt I believe that I provided an answer there's there's nothing more that you have to say I mean do you really believe at this moment given how divided the country is and the questions asked that your service in this role is the best for the nation I mean I I'm not saying you can't do public service again you can't do something else again do you really genuinely in your heart believe that you being in this role is what's right for America at this moment I mean do you do you think there are people who are Trump supporters who have confidence in you the one thing that the we've got to have agencies in this country that are transcend politics that have the confidence of Independents Democrats Republicans progressives conservatives do you really believe that the majority of this country has confidence in you right now I believe that the country deserves answers and I am committed to finding those answers and providing those answers well I well look I believe director shid that you should resign I think there are colleagues on both sides of the aisle who believe that and I hope you'll consider under it he y back chair now recognizes uh Mr Palmer from Alabama for five minutes director Tel did local law enforcement uh ESU teams have compromised authority to engage a perceived threat yes uh why do you think they didn't use it I believe that they follow the same use of force uh that are you don't when you have compromised Authority you don't have to get permission if you perceive a threat and there were um not just the ESU units but there were local law enforcement that had line of sight on the shooter before the shots were taken so one of my uh questions is is there was supposed to be a briefing with the uh Secret Service sniper units your counter assault team members with the contract team with the local ESU teams that didn't take place why was that so I have been told that there has been a briefing there was a briefing that took place I've been told that there wasn't one and again we are still looking into the facts of the investigation so let me ask you this uh when were you informed that there was a credible threat against uh president Trump former president Trump when did you learn of that sir the former president has a number of threats I I I didn't ask you that there was a credible threat from Iran when were you informed of that answer the question we have been monitoring the threats you knew before you knew before the rally okay all right uh the site security plan is generally drafted by uh the site supervisor and the site agent uh probably out of the Pittsburgh district office uh did they take into account the credible threat against President trump our Personnel take into account the threats that are then why would they leave a building and I will correct the distance that's been quoted it was about 140 yards with clear line of sight to the president why was that building not occupied on the roof I mean you could have put Barney F on the roof and and kept somebody from getting up there so why why wasn't that done the plan that was developed that day encompassed a number of security mitigations the the issue is the site supervisor the site agent and and the and the special agent in charge who Pro I think signed off on the plan did not include that in the in the inner perimeter and they didn't have a plan to secure the building the as I understand it the Butler County ESU unit was situated on the second floor of a of a building next to that but they didn't have a clear line of side of the roof the angle was too severe uh the photograph that was taken of the young man uh of the shooter when he had the rangefinder was taken at 5:15 it wasn't until 538 that that photograph was uh transmitted to the Secret Service sniper units I don't understand the lack of interoperability here in the communication process I don't understand why uh people didn't perceive that as a credible threat uh the video that Mr Christen morphe had shown there was clearly a credible threat so how is it that all of these mistakes could be made how many explosive devices were found on or near the site again I would have to defer you to the FBI Madam I I I believe they were in his car and and there I think there might have been one near a main gas line uh it wasn't just the fact that he had a rifle it was the fact that he had the ability to inflict enormous harm enormous numbers of casualties had those devices exploded um I want to know also um when you when your agents conduct a site review are they fully informed of all of the threats that are being made against uh the the the principle that they're protecting what I can tell you is that when our agents go out to conduct in advance their whole goal is to ensure understand what their goal is the the failure to secure that building not only put the president former president's life in danger it put the the lives of individuals in the crowd in danger as well I mean the Reagan shooting there were other people shot at that time as well uh and the Secret Service members lives were in danger so I don't understand how you can continue to stay in the position you're in when this was a a a failure of historic magnitude 43 years without anything like this happening and and you failed in this case in a spectacular way Mr chairman yield back gentleman yields back chair recognizes Mr infu from Maryland thank you Mr chair I want to commend you and the uh ranking member on your joint statement and for holding this hearing that we might all at least attempt to try to get some answers some of us uh Miss cheel grew up in an era uh not too unlike what we see today in terms of political violence and some of us remember the November 22nd 1963 assassination of President Kennedy uh some of us like myself remember two days later when Jack Ruby on live TV shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald we've seen over and over and over since that time these kind of attempts whether it was the assassination of Martin Luther King or Bobby Kennedy or the attempted attack on George Wallace and Laurel Maryland the shooting in 1981 of Ronald Reagan our friend and colleague Steve siss shooting here in DC and the unfortunate attack on Paul Pelosi and now this matter regarding former president Trump I I I'm let me try if I might to take another walk at this people just assume that whoever is in charge takes full responsibility when there's never been at least on this magnitude and scale this sort of failure so when members ask you are you going to resign and you say you have no intention to they are perplexed like many people who watch what's going on and I there's some things I just don't understand why was the building the ARG building placed outside of the perimeter when clearly it was close enough for someone to launch an attack so again sir we are looking into all of the details of how the advanced was comprised but I can tell you that there was OverWatch on that building provided that day by a drone I'm not going to get into the specifics of Technology assets that were used in well I think it's fair to say the OverWatch failed because the shooter got up on the roof and stayed there for a while and people had pointed him out so do you think that your OverWatch was a failure in that case I think that we need to know the full details to understand how this occurred and why was the rooftop left naked to begin with can you tell us that considering it was within the line of sight and so very close again I I can't speak to the specific spefic of this particular event site but what I can tell you is that when the Secret Service develops an advanced plan they take into account a number of uh factors when they're when they're building their Advance uh if there are buildings or areas of concern and OverWatch is uh one of those mitigations that they want to put in place then they will cover off areas of responsibility I understand that but the shooter came to the attention of your agency 52 minutes before the former president got to the stage did anybody get a signed to watch or cover that individual who had already been seen with a uh Advanced finder on him and other suspicious matters was anybody assigned to track him so what I'd like to clarify is that a suspicious individual I got that part a threat to the attention I know I of our personnel and again having a rangefinder at an outdoor event well let me ask you this when the suspicious person was brought to the attention of the Secret Service was anybody in the detail order to follow and stay with that suspicious person just because they might become a threat so we have a number of teams that are on the ground uh and again we are trying to verify the timelines of when those notifications were made to our Personnel so that they could uh assume the responsibility of trying to track that individual Miss Cheeto there has been uh a lot of discussions some of which raised itself earlier in this hearing about poor staff morale within your agency and I have the July 17th report of uh government executive which is a credible reporting service for the federal government for employees and the 2023 ranking of places to work within the federal government showed and this is through the office of personnel management that the Secret Service came in 413th out of 459 sub agencies and agencies can you explain that certainly what I can tell you is the Secret Service is a difficult job it challenges our employees daily it's holidays it's weekends it's no leave periods but but but Madam uh people come to work knowing that you do explain that when you hire somebody they know that it's the same with other agencies they they miss holidays they come to work at odd hours but to be wors one of the worst places to work within the federal government 413 out of 459 I'm I just need an explanation what do you think as the Director there I think that this and that's the last question but please answer Mr info's question I think that this is a challenging job I think that it's a challenging environment to be in law enforcement and we do have a no fail Mission and our folks are tasked with that every day 365 days of the year but I can tell you I've also taken a number of measures since I've have been the director to recruit and retain and stem the tide of attrition in our agency which will hopefully alleviate some of that thank you Mr chairman uh chair now recognize Mr sessions from Texas Mr chairman thank you very much I join in the the calls above all of our members to say thank you for doing this hearing on a bipartisan basis director I'm not going to sit here and say you ought to resign but I am going to say that you have not given us confidence that you have the ability to understand what happened to take the responsibility in terms of understanding you've spent a number of years how many years do you say you've been with the agency 29 well I spent 16 years with AT&T moved seven times with them and had a really good feel about their operations how they worked what was acceptable who was responsible and I've heard you say today numbers of times well you've got to wait well you've got to wait wait for the final report when is the final final going to happen I am how long do we have to wait before you can give us credible answers you've been there 28 years you've had a few days to be able to draw your own analysis of this you should understand the entire process you talked about being on the team perhaps in Georgia you have talked about your uh experience in this you've talked about the professional nature of the agency that I don't doubt but the director just like it was when I ran my operations at AT&T was responsible for making sure they worked and in business either works or doesn't work there's no in between it either works ores does not work and your job as the inessence administrator the director is to make sure it looks right and works and I've not heard you say one thing about my analysis is I have asked these questions it's always I've got to sit back and wait for someone else to decide that so I'm going to ask you a question that maybe you can answer have any employees been disciplined for their role in Butler PA incident no sir not at this time I am asking those questions so no employee has been disciplined and no employee has been uh placed in any position that would Place their job in Jeopardy nor their standing in the agency we are still in the process of intervie that's not what I asked I you're the person that runs the place you're the person that knows right from wrong good from bad you've had a number of days and now you come before this committee knowing you're going to be before forced and you've got to Slough it off to someone else do you see where there was something that went wrong as a professional at agency with 28 years or do you have to count on someone else to give you the final report I see that something went wrong and I've acknowledged that something went wrong then what went wrong was the special agent in charge not doing their job was the shooter not g was the shooter giv extra time was the sniper doing their job I mean these are things that people who've been around for 28 years can analyze quickly I watched it live on TV and then within minutes saw a number of facts and factors that would have and should have been known by people who were there you've got 28 years you're showing up here telling us and the American public well I've got to wait for the final answer what is your evalu ation I'm asking those same questions well no you're you're before the committee tell us what went wrong a special aent in charge the person who was there tell us and don't try and play a shell game with us do you have the ability to effectively as the Director of this agency to understand what went wrong and at least tell us uh I do or don't know what I'm doing and We Come Away with and I'm not asking for you to resign I'm asking for you if you've got this experience then you should be able to say to us we know what we did wrong it was a failure in our system and we're immediately making these Corrections that's why you're having a difficult time with this group of members of Congress because we saw it too we've seen the things but you are the 28-year expert you are the person that and only you that can make the change es and I hear you say well I've got to wait for a final report before I at 28 years experience that is why we think what you're doing the answers you're giving us are not correct and you are not using your pro professional expertise Mr chairman I will allow her to respond I am asking those same question sir and I assure you when I have a full and complete uh report of exactly what happened there will be accountability and we will make changes before I recognize the qu just out of curiosity director it's been Nine Days Every American wants these questions answered do you have a ballpark estimate of when what Mr sessions asked you would be able to answer so I can TimeWise I can tell you on our mission Assurance uh internal investigation we are targeting to have that completed uh within 60 days there's also an external investigation that is going to be taking place there are a number of office of Inspector General investigations as well and we are working in concert and then of course there's the Department of Justice FBI criminal investigation CH chair recognizes Miss acasio Cortez from New York thank you uh Mr chairman um director cheel respectfully uh what you had just laid out about 60 days uh we are currently in the midst of a uh of of an especially concentrated presidential campaign in the moment uh that is also paired with of course elections happening across the country that are happening in about a 100 days so the notion of a report coming out in 60 days when the threat environment is so high in the United States irrespective of party is not acceptable and I think it's very important to understand that this is not theater this is not about jockeying this is about the safety of some of the most highly targeted and valued targets internationally and domestically in the United States of America so the idea that a report will be finalized in 60 days let alone prior to any actionable uh decisions that would be made is simply not acceptable it has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States regardless of party there need to be answers again this party this this this committee this is not a moment of theater we have to make policy decisions and we have to make them now we do and that may be a a and that may require legislation that may require policy that we must pass in the immediate uh term and without that we are Flying Blind so the lack of answers and the lack of report is just simply not something that we can accept here um director cheel is there a standard perimeter that the Secret Service establishes around uh an event or are those perimeters independently determined per event and scenario there is no standard uh every event and every ven venue is different and treated as such so they so each event has a different uh perimeter that is established depending on on the Logistics of that event now you established earlier that the building upon which the shooter uh operated from was outside of that established perimeter correct for the Butler Pennsylvania event it was outside of our secure perimeter yes now that um that building was I believe 500 how far away was that building from from the president uh it was approximately 200 yards 200 yards now the individual uh used an AR-15 in order to uh act out his assassination attempt an AR-15 has a range of about 4 to 600 yards my question is why does the Secret Service perimeter um why is the Secret Service protective perimeter shorter than one of the most popular semi automatic weapons in the United States there are a number of weapons out there uh with a number of ranges uh again an advance was completed uh the determination of the perimeter I'm not going to speak to specifics but there are a number of factors that are taken into account when we determine our perimeter some of it has to do with terrain some of it has to do with buildings some of it has to do with assets and resources uh that are available and so what I'm what I'm hearing is that a perimeter was not established outdoors in an outdoor venue that would prevent an AR15 which is one of the most common weapons used in mass shootings um from being able to to be within the range of Secret Service protection a perimeter was established and even though there were buildings that were outside of that perimeter it wasn't just that building there were a number of buildings in the area uh and there was OverWatch that was created to help mitigate some of those buildings um respectfully Dr cheel as well um as a person who has experienced an enormous amount of threat incidents including incidents that have never been reported publicly [Music] um what there's a there is a common pattern that happens here whether it's Secret Service FBI Capital police local departments after a critical security failure we often hear there will be an independent investigation that independent investigation gets set up usually the expectation is between 2 to 3 months after the incident and then nothing really occurs from there the report is usually not satisfactory to the questions that are usually being raised here and uh most importantly corrective action is rarely taken um my if I were to to state anything that I think is profoundly important is that we need to have answers to the public ideally I would encourage uh you and the agency to be more forthright with the members that still have yet uh to have their questioning because the public deserves to have full confidence and the stakes are too high the violence that could break out in this political moment regardless of Party in the event of someone getting hurt constitutes a national security threat to the entire country thank you thank you and I Y back could I go back to something you yes please feel free director ma'am if if I could just speak to something you said at the outset uh when you started your questioning uh I want to assure you and everyone on this committee that I'm not waiting for a report to take action we have been conducting analysis all along and we have been uh adding additional features to our security details uh since this incident occurred and I I'd hope you can highlight and illuminate what's of those are uh in the event of of other members questioning as well very good chair recogniz is the uh gentleman from Arizona Mr Bigs thank you Mr chairman I request uh unanimous consent for that photo to go into the official record without objection to ordered thank you director your agency has a no- fail Mission and on Saturday July 13th your agency spectacularly failed the failure resulted in the death of Corey comor and serious injury to two other rally attendees David Dutch and jabes copenhaver besides the injuries to president trump it is unfathomable that a 20-year-old on the radar of Secret Service in local law enforcement before President Trump went on stage was able to climb onto the roof of a building with a rifle and fire off multiple rounds before he was neutralized was Mr krooks acting alone again I would have to refer you to the FBI's investigation was he just a lone gun man I would have to refer you to the FBI's inves investigation for motive what did the technical services division determine was going to be the event perimeter those are questions that we are asking and we are you I mean you're sitting here today come on director everybody said this you knew you going to be asked that question because it's been asked multiple times so so this is an easy one what did they determine was going to be the event perimeter so you should know that I mean this is not I gota wait till someone else tells me what was it again I don't want to speak to specifics of the event place this this is a specific I understand this is a specific that you ought to know as someone who said the buck stops with me I'm going to stay in my job I'm going to give the answers to the American people and I know what happened except for you're not going to tell us and you're not going to tell the American people and you yourself said in an interview that that fints this notion of conspiracy theories guess what when you sit here and repeatedly tell people hey I have to wait as have frustrated everybody on this committee guess what it undermines your credibility and whether you're really going to get to it so I'm going to ask you again what did the technical service division determine was going to be the event perimeter we are still Gathering reports we are interviewing individuals you know you know what it is though no you're just not going to tell us right when I have those details I will most certainly share those was the gun already on the roof or did the shooter carry the gun up with him I do not have that information at this time well when was the last sweep of that roof done prior to the rally I do not have that information at this time so um how many holds I mean so so most of us here have been in events and secret service has been there there's been security and I can't tell you how many times um we've we've said there's going to be a security hold right here so we're going to wait and we wait to one or two or three two or three minutes uh and and yet we're hearing from you apparently that there were no holds in place so ever in instituted here with President Trump's uh going on stage and you said and this is I think connected with this you said uh they hadn't adjudicated the shooter to be a threat he was adjudicated to be a suspicious person even though we've got some damic video that Mr Christ morony put on the on the video for us so I guess my question for you is and I think you answered this I just want to see if you're consistent with what you said about an hour and a half ago what do you do if a suspicious person is is uh is identified by the agency so at a number of our events it is not unusual I I know it's not unusual what do you do those individuals that are identified as suspicious we will send teams out to was a team s was a team sent out here then there were teams that were sent to identify and interview that individual they they were sent to interview the individual who's scampered up in camo on top of a roof within 130 yards of his Target and did they did your team get there when did your team get there to conduct that interview I don't have the details on the timeline it is my so so so if you did send if their team if they did send a team and they're going to interview him and you said you described that earlier as an investigation why didn't they put a security hold on President Trump going on stage at that rally at a number of our protective sites there are suspicious individuals that are identified all the time doesn't necessarily mean that they constitute a threat of course not but here you guy got a guy scampering up the side of a building on top of a roof it's identified to you and you said you sent a team there and and uh you can't answer that and this gets to my one of my finer points Mr Mr chairman if I can make it and that is we can have these kind of interview sessions five minutes you know everybody gets a kiss at the pig five minutes and and she gets to ston Wallace not deliver answers so we say okay we're going to put together a congressional committee a blue ribbon committee same crap will happen I am calling and and I'll support that but I will tell you this I am calling on the speaker to give us and and put together a truly independent Commission of qualified former secret service agencies uh presidential and VIP protect Protective Services people who can actually conduct this kind of U of investigation and give us real answers because I don't think you can you're going to give us those answers you should have come today ready to give us answers I call upon you to resign today today and I also would say I've got a bunch of UC request if I can go ahead Mr chairman proceed with the request thank you I I apologize it might that's right go ahead it might take a moment important uh so uh Anthony geli the Secret Service spokesman one from him without objection so ordered article Us Secret Service says have previously denied Trump request for additional resources New York Times reports without objection to order Secret Service says it denied earlier Trump request for more Federal resources objection order Secret Service acknowledges denying some pass request by Trump's campaign for tighter security that objection to ordered a preliminary findings by Senator Ron Johnson and his committee without objection to ordered article's entitled notice anything different about Trump's Secret Service detailed uh next former Biden official corrects herself after saying dims must turn their fire on Donald Trump to beat him secret service director says buck stops with her but but she will not resign Disney Star Wars Mark Hamill cracks joke about Trump's ear bandage following assassination attempt Biden I haven't engaged in sighting rhetoric Trump has I'm just talking about threat to democracy uh piece called who is Secret Service Chief Kimberly cheel Charlamagne the God says Trump solely responsible for violent rhetoric that led to attempt on his life video actress Amanda seals pushes conspiracy theory Donald Trump assassinate assassination trip was staged report Secret Service ident ified rooftop as a potential vul vulnerability days before the rally watch Black Rock removes ad showing former president Donald Trump's would be assassin why does the Biden Administration have 100% confident Secret Service after assassination attempt secret service director we didn't put snipers on the roof because it was kind of sloped here's what Thomas Matthew krooks did in the days leading up to Trump assassination attempt sacred service director under scrutiny for diversity initiatives after Trump assassination attempt the official story on Trump shooting makes no sense at all Andrew mccab says trumpess Mr chairman point of order I'm happy to ascend to all of them uh I I just so as to facil want me to read is it too tedious well we're not even really hearing them anyway so if we could is it it's up to you Mr chairman you would like me slow I'll slow it down if I was probably going too fast secret Services explanations for security failures ahead of trump assassination attempt are not adding up us reportedly received Intel of Iranian plot to assassinate president Trump what WTH secret service now saying that they didn't put any agents on the roof because slight slope was too dangerous report US officials received Intel of Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump before Crook's attempt exclusive GOP rep Cloud homeland security agency is interfering in houses assassination investigation why Trump's raised fist after surviving assassination attempt is triggering the liberal media questions swirl over the security laps at Trump rally Reviving old concerns about Secret Service Secret Service scrambles to shift blame after Trump shooting as backlash hits hard nobody contacted me must see6 camera split screen of assassination attempt captures everything shooter was in open two plus minutes Mario five reasons you should be angry breaking shooter spotted up to 30 minutes before firing reported multiple times pict taken no one stopped him sheel calls the 30 minutes between noticing and neutralizing Shooters very short shooter a very short period of time secret service director says buck stops with me on Trump assassination attempt but won't resign Mr Big we'll we'll stop right there we can retake them on the next one I know there are more but without objection we'll enter into the record all of those and we'll take up the others uh after the next speaker chair now recognizes Miss Brown from Ohio for five minutes thank you Mr chairman I first want to highlight certain comments from ranking member Rasin my colleagues on both sides of the aisle President Biden and vice president Harris and that is political violence is completely unacceptable in this country full stop it is an assault on our democracy itself and I am devastated by this attack on a candidate for the president for the office of the highest office in the land and continue to pray for the victims of this shooting and their families as someone who has known gun violence firsthand no one should have to experience the pain of losing a loved one to weapons of war it is deeply unfortunate political violence has become far too common whether it is the deadly attack on the capital on January 6 The Assault on speaker Pelosi's husband or the threats of violence against election workers we all must work to condemn political violence and tone down the r so director Cheeto on behalf of the hardworking men and women of the Secret Service can you give us some perspective as into what goes into securing an an event like the rally like how much time do you have to pre prepare thank you for the question generally when we receive notification uh that there's going to be an event taking place at a venue uh the advanced team assignments are made and there is a 5-day process to conduct walkthroughs coordinate with staff uh local staff and uh whether it be campaign staff or the protecte staff and then with local law enforcement on where the perimeter is going to be the the size and the scope of the event how many attendees they're going to be if it's an indoor rally outdoor rally uh what sort of assets are available locally what sort of assets the Secret Service can bring to bear uh and what the scope of the event that the the staff is trying to accomplish So to that point how many agents were recommended or requested as opposed to how many were assigned so I'm not going to get into specifics of how many were assigned but those numbers that were requested were provided and how many local agents were involved in the uh preparation if you will that you talked about that 5-day preparation so there were a number of local Agents from the local office uh as well as agents from the former Trump detail that were involved in that advanced process do we have a number I do have a number I I'm not going to release that number in the set you're not making this easy for us um this is a shocking incident on the former president's life and an appalling instance of political violence and a threat to our Democratic Values I'm thankful that the former president is on the men and again I'm grieving for the family and friends of Corey compor who lost a loved one um in this shooting and now know the unbearable pain of gun violence I really hope this serves as a reminder about our responsibility to attack policies not personalities to be honest and truthful and to treat one another with dignity respect and thoughtfulness and with that I yield my ranking I yield my remaining time to ranking member Rasin then thank you Miss Brown for those very powerful and moving remarks um director we don't want to lose a presidential candidate to an AR-15 attack we cannot lose a presidential candidate to an AR-15 attack and we can't lose any more citizens to AR-15 Mass violence mass shootings um and we certainly don't want an attempted AR-15 assassination uh or assassination attempt to set off political violence or riots in America so this is deadly serious business the vice ranking member um pointed out that a report in 60 days won't do it for us because we have a responsibility members of Congress have a responsibility to take action now if there's anything we can do to prevent this so my question for you is what is informing your operational decisions right now that you've uh invoked uh without a report can you tell us what are the preliminary judgments or if you don't want to foreshadow the report fine what are your personal professional judgments informing the operational decisions you're making right now certainly and I appreciate that question uh I I don't want to make any preliminary judgments on what happened on this particular day but I can tell you that we have looked at uh as we did immediately in the aftermath what the security plan for the Republican National Convention uh was going to be and we made adjustments to the interior of the permeter there we looked at the protectees that we have here in the Washington DC area and our protective sites and we did make some adjustments uh to their security posture uh and as we continue to move through the next several weeks uh even yesterday uh with the announcement uh of the president no longer running we have made adjustments uh to vice president's detail we are already prepared uh for an eventual VP nominee and we continue to make those assessments I think it just shows how Dynamic the environment is that this agency Works in every day so you've made the same kinds of Common Sense judgments and intuitive recommendations that members of the public and members of Congress are asking about right now yes okay thank you are you back Mr chairman and before recognize miss Ma I I have to say director we're pretty close to the halfway point during this you answered more questions with an ABC reporter than you have with members of Congress we have a lot more questions the American people are demanding that we get answers to those questions and that's what the purpose of this hearing is today so uh I'm sure a lot of the questions that have already been asked are going to be asked again and hopefully we can get some answers to those questions I strongly employ for you to answer those questions you're here with a subpoena and we expect you to answer the questions chair now recognizes miss Ma from South Carolina thank you Mr chairman uh do director Cheeto the American people are watching and they're wondering if there are any questions you can answer honestly today so director Cheeto I have a series of questions very specific questions I want very specific answers most of my questions are going to demand a yes or no answer do you understand I do okay my first question both sides of the aisle today have asked for your resignation would you like to use my five minutes to draft your resignation letter yes or no no thank you was this a colossal failure it was a failure yes or no was it a colossal failure is the question yes or no I have admitted this is a terrible this is a yes or no series of questions was this a colossal failure yes yes or no yes was this tragedy preventable yes or no yes has the Secret Service been transparent with this committee yes would you say the fact that we had to issue a subpoena to get you to show up today as being transparent yes or no I have always been e yes or no you didn't want to answer the question we had to issue a subpoena to get you to show up today that is not transparent by the way you stated earlier secret service is not political is that correct yes okay would you say leaking your opening statement to punch B news politico's Playbook and Washington Post several hours before you sent it to this committee as being political yes or no I have no idea how my statement got out well that's so Mr chairman I would like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record article by punch bow news political Playbook Washington Post all uh done at 5:24 a.m. 6:12 a.m. 6:34 a.m. a a solid three to four hours before this committee got your statement without objection to ordered okay is a secret service fully cooperating with our committee yes okay you say you're fully cooperating with this committee um on July 15th this committee sent you a list of Demands of information that we wanted has the Secret Service provided this committee a complete list of all law enforcement Personnel that were there that day have you done that have you provided a list to the oversight committee yes or no I will have to get back to you on that that is a no have you provided all audio and video recordings in your possession to this committee as we asked on July 15th yes or no I would have to get back to you that is a no you're full of today you're just being completely dishonest mrman I want to Mr we have to maintain theorum in this committee no matter how Prov any and all memos to this committee that we've asked you on July 15th have you provided all memorandums within the Secret Service I would have to get back to you on that is a no you are being dishonest or lying I I just you're being dishonest here with this committee these are important questions that the American people want answers to and you're just you're just dodging and and talking around it in generalities and we had to subpoena you to be here and you won't even answer the question we have asked you repeatedly to answer our questions this isn't hard these are not hard questions um have you provided us all Communications from the secret service related to that day and that rally have you provided this commit we've asked for this information on July 15th have you provided any of this information that this committee has asked of the Secret Service any of it I'll have to get back to you have you even read this letter that we sent you did you even read this yes okay and you have uh said you don't know you have no idea the answer is no we haven't gotten a single document or piece of information or data from you or your agency in related to the rally that we have asked you for so um is this was uh this uh attempted assassination of Donald Trump a failure of training or execution or both I think that those are answers that we need to training execution or both which one I think those are all right how many uh how many Secret Service Personnel have lost their jobs due to this colossal failure at this time none how many Secret Service Personnel have been required to take a refresher course on how not to let people shoot Donald Trump our Personnel are currently operational we are examining the facts of this investigation and we will make the changes necessary what time did law enforcement become aware that there was an individual on the roof with a clear line of sight to president president Trump I am still verifying timelines of course uh nine days in you have no answers how many minutes went by Between the time law enforcement saw and took photos of crooks and the shooting how many minutes I am still verifying 57 minutes thank you Mr chairman and I yield back gent lady yields back before I recognize Mr stanbury I believe I want to recognize Mr mume for a unanimous consent yeah thank you Mr chairman I beg your Indulgence I meant to do this earlier I'd like to have unanimous consent that it be uh submitted for the record the 2023 ranking of best and worst workplaces in the federal government uh compiled by the office of personnel management which shows the United States secr Service coming in again as I said earlier 413th out of 459 sub agencies uh and this appears in the July 17th uh edition of government exe without objection to order chair now recognizes Miss stanbury from New Mexico thank you Mr chairman um you know I I want to start by just saying that part of why you have bipartisan agreement here on the dis about the severity and importance of this hearing is because this is not just a single shooting this is about National Security and the security of our democracy it's not just one operational failure this is about our our public officials safe and what does that signal to our country and to the world about American Security and the ability of our officials to do their job safely so I want to start by saying thank you to all of our brave men and women who are in the uniform whether it's the Secret Service or local law enforcement who put their lives on the line I think obviously we honor their service but this is really about operational failures and what it means for our country at large and I also want to reaffirm that uh we must condemn unequivocally political violence of any kind violence of any kind not just political violence and that it cannot be tolerated in this democracy and also to offer my prayers for the slain um fire chief uh Cory comor and also prayers for those who've been injured now I think you know the the tone of this hearing is how is it that a 20-year-old young man with a gun that was legally purchased by his father could on the day of a rally go to a gun shop legally purchase ammunition show up to a secured site and then not only attempt an assassination of a political figure but kill and injure two others how could this happen I'm not asking yet I think we've had a lot of testimony here today I want to talk a little bit about the timeline now here's what we know and I know director you were also on the call that we had a few days ago with the FBI and other law enforcement so I respect that uh you are not able to share based on your testimony some of the details that are currently being investigated but I know you were on the call because I heard you on the call and you heard them too so I'm going to lay out the timeline a little bit on July 3rd the rally was announced that it was going to be in Butler on July 6 3 days later we know that the shooter searched for dates for Trump and DNC events on July 7th so this is 4 days after the announcement the shooter went to the site he actually physically went to the site on July 12th the shooter went to a gun range where he and his dad regularly go and practiced shooting and the next day on July 13th he went to the site again before the rally began we we know that he then went and searched online for gun store where he went and he purchased 50 rounds of ammunition went home got his father's AR which was legally purchased and returned to the venue at 5:00 p.m. that evening this is more than an hour before Donald Trump actually took the stage that evening local law enforcement made aware where made aware that there was a suspicious man in fact at 520 local law enforcement flagged that he had a rangefinder and they radioed their concerns and sent around pictures of the individual at 5:40 20 minutes before local law enforcement uh actually uh identified the shooter and at 5:51 Secret Service notifi was notified of the suspicious person by the state police and one minute later they distributed that information that was before Donald Trump even took the stage that was 11 minutes before he took the stage so the Secret Service was aware that there was a suspicious person at 603 he took the stage at 609 rally goers as was shown in the video identified this gentleman climbing on the roof at 611 three shots were heard three rounds of shots and of course the president and uh the other victims were shot this shooter was a 20-year-old young man no criminal record legally purchased gun and ammunition who for days in the leadup to this shooting was searching Mass Shooters he even had a picture of a mass shooter on his cell phone the day of the shooting he searched for explosives he searched highlevel officials so the American people want to know how did a 20-year-old young man with access to a military style weapon actually bring it on to an unsecured perimeter who for days had been planning a mass shooting event and I think that Madame director with all due respect the answers that we received here in this hearing today are completely unsatisfactory how could this happen we need answers we need answers not just for the family members of the gentleman who was killed and those who were injured but we need answers for our democracy because as others have stated here today we are in a highly politically charged environment right now we are only weeks away from one of the most significant presidential elections in in American history and it is clear that our public officials safety is not been secured and it is not just a matter of one shooting it is a matter of national security so I hope that you will take our comments to heart I hope that there will be accountability and we need answers with that I chair now recogniz this Mr lerer from Kansas thank you Mr chairman director cheel I have a question just right off the bat something that you've bragged about repeatedly is that You' increased protection for the 36 individuals that the Secret Service is also entrusted with is that correct I think I stated that we currently have 36 protectees and that we have uh we continue to make evaluations on where those levels of protection are provided you've mentioned specific increases in protection that you've provided for some of those individuals correct correct based on what well some of it has been as a result of the tragic incident that occurred on the 13th we went back and reassessed where we were at in providing protection and wanted to make sure that we were not you know overlooking anything uh considering this this most recent incident so the Secret Service needed to learn that allowing a rooftop 150 yards away from a protecte not putting that in a perimeter not having someone guarding that roof that information is new to you and it's caused you to increase protection to other uh folks that are under your care I think it is prudent after any incident that occurs to go back and take a look at your current practices and see if there is anything that needs to be done differently it's inconsistent because what you said earlier to uh Mr Turner was that the protection that you were offering to president Trump was in line with the current threats him being a former president him being a nominee of a major uh political party the threats from Iran the protection that you providing him was adequate do you stand by that statement yes okay do you think it's a problem that the Americans trust in the federal government is an all-time low do you think that's a problem I think that it's unfortunate I I don't know why you're quibbling with my word is it a problem or is it not I think the American public deserves to have trust in their federal government okay I don't know why you're being difficult I'm I'm just it's a simple question are you concerned about the increasing prevalence of conspiracy theories going on out there right now yes I am too you've been incredibly inconsistent with your answers before this committee today and what you were willing to reveal you've acknowledged that the shooter was identified with a rangefinder that President Trump's detail was sufficient for the threats he faced from Iran that certain details were erroneously reported in your words but you haven't been willing to provide any information about the decision to place the building in question outside the perimeter the explosives placed in the shooter's vehicle the use of a drone by the shooter or when exactly the Secret Service identified the shooter as a threat rather than merely suspicious what is your standard today for what you are willing to answer and what you are not because you've been inconsistent I'm certain that you can understand that some of the information that's been provided to you thus far has come from the FBI's investigation and has come from uh information that we have released I want to make sure that information that is being provided to this committee is consistent and is in factual but the question about the Drone that the chairman asked at the beginning of the hearing he said do you know this information and you acknowledge that yes you do know the information you just don't want to tell us I guess my question is is that if you wanted to wait till the end of the investigation to draw conclusions which you've acknowledge you're not you're drawing conclusions right now and making changes but if if that was your standard that you want to wait till the end of the investigation to draw conclusions okay at least you would be uh consistent in that but what we're wanting to know today and what would dispel some of the conspiracy theories out there what would increase trust in the with the American people is for you to let facts out for you to tell us what you know and I want to understand from you why is that a problem why is it inconsistent with a quality investigation to release to the American people today at least the information that you know for sure because you certainly know for sure more information than you're willing to give us today I have released that there was a failure and that there are gaps that we need to make sure in that they don't happen again that's not acceptable that's not enough that doesn't quell any conspiracy theories out there in your 27 years of experience would you have been concerned about an elevated location within 150 yards of a protecte that did not have a secret service presence just based on your experience what I can tell you is that every site and every venue I'm asking for your experience looking at this situation would that have been concern to you or would you have agreed that it's fine it doesn't need to be covered what I have explained today is not going to answer is it true that at 5:45 p.m. approximately 18 minutes before President Trump took the stage the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit noticed the shooter on the roof and photographed him is that a fact or not that is the information that I have from the FBI's report yes you haven't been willing to share whether or when this was communicated to the Secret Service so I'd like to get into the difference between suspicious activity and threatening activity is it suspicious or threatening if an individual is seen around the perimeter with a rangefinder is that just suspicious that could be termed as suspicious if that same individual with the rangefinder is found on a rooftop is that still just suspicious or is that uh is that considered threatening that could be termed still as suspicious all right my time is over Mr chairman I yield back thank you chair now recognize Mr Frost from Florida thank you so much Mr chair and obviously want to start by stressing stressing that political violence is always unacceptable um and acknowledging that this is still an ongoing investigation but oversight hearings like this are essential components of an investigation and I want to thank the chair for pulling this together um Madam director I appreciate you for being here the events of July 13th raise serious questions about the efficacy and thoroughness of the security protocols in place the gravity of the fact that an unsophisticated gunman was able to secure his perch and take a shot at a former president despite multiple layers of security and intelligent are not lost on me uh before I came to Congress I used to work advance for a major political candidate and have interacted with many different law enforcement agencies on large political events like the one that just happened how many times was the Secret Service alerted about a suspicious person at the July 13th campaign event prior to the first shot being shot I don't have an exact number to share with you today but uh from what I've been able to discern uh somewhere between two and five times there was some sort of communication about a suspicious individual to to the Secret Service specifically according to reports the shooter was photographed twice by security officers prior to the shooting a police officer saw the shooter on the ground and reported him with a photograph as a suspicious person multiple local Law Enforcement Officers identified the shooter radioed that he was acting suspiciously near the events magnetometers um a local law enforcement Tactical Team saw the shooter on a roof and notified other Security Services and also photographed him one police officer who was photographed The Who photographed the shooter saw him scoping out the roof and carrying a rang finder my question is and you've answered this but why or you haven't answered this why wasn't the event pause right then again I'm not clear on the timeline of when the Secret Service shift and the counter sniper were notified but earlier Madam director earlier you said that the Secret Service would have paused the rally if they identified a threat correct so why wasn't it paused because I have to assume that they did not know that there was a threat when they brought the president out on the stage I feel like this is a breakdown in communication between local law enforcement you all and other actors at the rally and again as someone who's worked on these I understand that there's multiple people with multiple decision uh with the ability to make different decisions on the ground I've taken the over the last week I've spoken with a lot of folks in local law enforcement in my district and across the country that I've worked with before and other people have brought up concerns around um Comm being able to communicate with law en or with Secret Service during these big events and having um their Flags take seriously I do believe that if Secret Service believed that there was a legitimate threat that they would have paused the rally my concern is before that that there something was flagged and it wasn't taken as seriously as it should have been taken um so I think this shows an issue with communication and I want to know Madame director what you intend to do to fix that not in 60 days but now we are in the middle of uh a presidential election obviously a former president who had uh who had an assassination attempt another rally grower who was killed due to this gun violence we now have a presumptive nominee the Democratic party who's also historic first black woman to be running for president and so I am worried about everybody's life what do you all intend to do to fix this communication breakdown and making sure that you you actually take uh what LO local law enforcement local folks are saying more seriously that's that's we take what local law enforcement relays to us seriously let me just be clear on that uh as far as the communication but not this not this time we always trust our law enforcement partners and have a great relationship with them uh we are looking at whether or not there was a communication breakdown uh if that was the case we will take steps to ensure that we correct that because to your point we cannot have a communication breakdown Madame director does the per uh the per you mentioned that the perimeter of the event did not include the rooftop where the shooter was does your responsibility and the secret Services responsibility to protect a principal stop at the perimeter of an event our responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of the event itself and the protecte who is attending that event and the Personnel who are protecting so you would say the fact that the rooftop was outside the perimeter is is not an excuse for what happened saying that it was outside the perimeter of the event I am not offering that as an excuse okay thank you I yield back yields back chair now recognizes Mr Fallon from Texas how did a 20-year-old loner with a week's notice pick the absolute best location to assassinate president Trump when the entire Secret Service missed it director cheel under your leadership your agency got out Smart in and out maneuvered by a 20-year-old how can we have any confidence that you could stop a trained professionals from a nefarious nation state those are absolutely questions that we need to have I know questions but you know the fact fact that the matter is we can't have that confidence director do you have the ability personally do you have the authority to beef up security of any of your protectees yes I do okay so were you also aware there was a credible threat uh president Trump was facing he was facing a heightened security threat do do it to a foreign adversary yes okay so given that there was an increased threat to president Trump's life was he provided a full security compliment AK to what a sitting US president would receive he was provided a full complement of Security based on the threat assessment that we had that's not my question and the venue my question is if he'd been the cting president would he have had the same security he had on July 13th or would have been beefed up there is a difference between the city president so your answer is he didn't and continuity of government and the responsibility he did not okay there wasn't a cat team full cat team on site there wasn't counter of balance teams on site but this is the thing you just said you have 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 no I have not nine days and you have not visited the site you should have been there that night did you talk to that evening did you talk to the team the heroes that surrounded the president did you call them that night they were still operational working so that's the answer is no did you call him the next day president yes I spoke with you call him the very next day not the day of or was it 72 hours after I don't know the timeline but I spoke with them because you're under roed I think it was 72 hours after you waited 3 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 yes okay do you know what the next most dangerous site what was the closest structure to the president other than the four immediate ones that you your counter sniper teams on there are a number of structures around that event site you you know who 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 a 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 I recall that statement okay does the Secret Service have written policy you can share with us about slope roofs no okay so why' you act like there was one because is it your practice to comment on enormous uh n 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 1812 you can go to a 112 which is about as flat as you can get without it being completely flat and you're saying that there was a danger uh safety concern there but the problem is director you put your counter snipers on a 312 roof which is steeper than the 112 and by the way the 112 is ADA Compliant you can build a a ramp for a wheelchair on a 112 roof so these are nothing but pathetic excuses and they make no sense and they're a bunch of cow Dum all the law enforcement I've spoken with over the last nine days are amazed that the AGR rooftop was not secure and 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 I 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 seavoy Texas we recreated what happened in Butler I was lying prone on a slope roof at 130 yards at 6:30 at night and I knew that he had a scope I didn't know what 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 Cory comp comparat to's life is over because that damn shooter made it on the roof and 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 you're horrifying inaptitude and your lack of skilled leadership is a disgrace your obious skating today is shameful and you should be fired immediately and go back to Garden Doritos Mr chairman I'll you back chair recognize Miss Lee from Pennsylvania uh thank you Mr chair um I'd like to thank uh the chair the ranking member for coming together and holding this hearing but I have to say I don't think any of our concerns have been addressed today and what little we've learned has not inspired much confidence I I will just say that we obviously can't allow the violence we're seeing in this country become the norm or a common place but that seems to be where we're heading on this occasion it was you know very shockingly a former president and current uh political candidate at a rally that we all assume is one of the most secure places we can be but the violence we saw last Saturday is the same culture of violence that makes too many of our kids and our community members feel unsafe to play outside or to go to class or to Simply live their lives each day but again this was a political rally and it is supposed to be one of the most secure places so we do have very uh specific questions about that director Cheeto I'd like to start by following up on some of the my colleagues questions U my colleagues Mr chrishna morphy and Mr Frost highed a number of points that showed the shooter presenting an active threat so I'd like to ask you director cheeter to clarify the protoc what the protocol is for postponing or cancelling an event based on a threat and how the events on July 13 didn't meet those standards so again I think we're talking about the distinction between suspicious behavior and a threat and at the time that this individual was identified they were displaying suspicious to behavior I'm still waiting for interviews from the FBI to to determine what it was that identified that individual as suspicious and what those behaviors were to to that question is suspicious Behavior does suspicious Behavior vary between different events for instance if we have an event with a president would there not be a heightened standard for suspicious Behavior I think that there are a number of ways that someone could be identified as suspicious uh and it doesn't matter whether it's at a rally or an indoor event or who the protecte is I think it's up to law enforcement or citizens to identify someone as suspicious okay uh thank you according to the Associated Press at least six different agencies including two Sheriff's Office local police State Police as well as fire and emergency rescue officials were involved in securing the rally in Butler when there are so many teams uh that are collaborating who takes the lead and how is that determined the Secret Service is responsible for the security of the site and the coordination and that was the case on July 13th correct okay changing gears in 2024's Appropriations budget the Secret Service was given a little over three billion which was about 78 million above what was requested for 202's Budget you've requested yet another increase how much of these funds goes towards training and improving protection procedures I would have to get back to you on the training aspect of it but about 30% of our budget is for uh protected protection uh and facilities and training but clearly the problem can't be a lack of funding so what exactly do you see as the core problem that led to this fa failure that led to your agency being outgun by a 20year old using his father's gun and acting on his own without a particularly sophisticated plan or technology I think that we are waiting to determine exactly what those failures or failure was uh so that we can make sure that the Secret Service is stronger after this so we've heard a lot today that you can't answer because it's an ongoing investigation that you're still figuring out the details and that you won't answer basic questions you've said 60 days for the investigation but I simply don't think that's acceptable do you really plan to keep avoiding questions and the American people's questions ours and the American people's questions for the next 60 days I'm not avoiding questions I want to make sure that I am providing factual and accurate information certainly but is there no in between right between what is obviously fact and what you can surmise from the details that you already have I assure you when I have a full and complete uh report of what took place on that day I will certainly come back and make that available certainly studies indicate that the United States has experiencing increasing levels of political violence and tension does the Secret Service see increasing political violence as a threat to its work and if so how is the Secret Service adapting its strategies and protocols to account for increasing political uh political violence we are constantly evaluating the threats that we receive and monitoring that and we make adjustments on a daily basis uh to our protectees based on what those threats are uh and and what actions we need to take yes or no do you believe that stricter controls on the availability of assault weapons would make it easier for the Secret Service to fulfill its missions of protecting public officials I think the Secret Service is tasked with providing a safe environment which is why we put into place a number of mitigation factors certainly but do assault weapons make it easier or harder for you to do your job I think that any weapon makes it difficult for us to do our job okay I Y back chair recognizes Mr Donald's from Florida uh thank you chairman uh director real quick at what what time did was Secret Service aware of the active threat against President Trump director what time so the Secret Service was aware that there was an individual who had been identified as suspicious uh and that that individual uh was attempting to be tracked down at what time I don't have a specific timeline other than to director has been nine days at what time I I want to make sure that I give you factual information sir director have you talked to the agents on the ground that day yes I have you've talked to all of them MH your senior team te has talked to every agent that was on the ground that day yes we have have they all corroborated the same time they identified the shooter or they were made aware of the shooter either by attendees in the crowd or local police department there are a number of reports of when those times were made was it five minutes before the first shot rang out no generally speaking was it 10 minutes before the first shot rang out no it was was it 15 minutes before the first shot rang out it was less than that time frame when the it was identified as a threat how many days before the shooting took place did Secret Service actually do their advanced work to secure the facility that the rally was going to be held at five days in the five days prior when the when the security uh Advanced team did their work did they that did they identify the rooftop as a Potential Threat again I'm pulling those reports and that information it's been N9 days Madam director did they know that did they notice a rooftop 150 yards away way that was a Potential Threat yes or no I am certain that the rooftop was noticed I am pulling the reports what was the security par the security parameters around securing that rooftop there what did they do there was OverWatch provided for that rooftop did OverWatch fail I am waiting to hear what the results of the investigation were so that I can identify where the failure was who did you talk to that was on the ground that day that was responsible for OverWatch what are their names I'm not going to provide their names in this setting did you talk to the people that were providing OverWatch that day I've talked to the people that conducted the Advance on that day and that were working the shift and were the counter snipers on that day so you talk to the counter sniper team you talk to the people who were providing OverWatch that day and you talk to the advanced team correct yes sir what did they tell you we are putting together a comprehensive report so that I can identify exactly where the gaps and the failures when the counter sniper team was on the roof and they identified that there was a there was a susp there was suspicious activity on the roof in question what was the chain of commands orders around the person on set roof because I'm quite sure somebody saw in in under your organization the Secret Service I'm quite sure somebody saw the shooter on the roof so what was the communication through the chain of command to deal with said person what I can tell you is that when the individual was identified by the counter sniper they took one shot and neutralized that individual but that was after the shooter already took a shot is that correct that is correct so what you're saying now is that the Secret Service did not see the shooter on the roof until after the shooter took a shot I do not have all of those details at this time if you don't have those details after 9 days director than what you're telling me is that you guys didn't see it is that correct I am telling you I don't have all the details of the sequence at this time director it's been nine days either you have the information or you do not is that correct we are still in the process of conducting interviews and an investigation some of my colleagues have texted me over the last couple days bipartisan about whether you should lose your job and I've been quiet on that question because I wanted to see where what you were going to do today um in my opinion you do need to be fired immediately and it is because this is gross incompetence and the fact that it's been nine days and these are simple questions to to answer I'm quite sure if I asked any one of my kids if they got in trouble and I told them to give me the details I would get more answers from them than I'm getting from you right now and that's what's frustrating on a bipartisan basis on a nonpartisan basis this is a joke and director you're in charge and that's why you need to go Mr chairman i y back chair now recognize Mr Goldman from New York thank you Mr chairman um director I I want to follow up and just understand a little bit why um there is so much information about this out in the public public including some from you and your Communications team uh and yet you're here pursuant to a subpoena um under oath in front of Congress and you're unable or unwilling to answer some of those same questions can you just explain why uh you are answering so many fewer questions here than you have to the media I'm answering the questions that I'm able to answer based on the fact that there are multiple ongoing investigations but you've you have answered some of these questions previously correct to the public to the media which questions well for did you have an interview with ABC News yes I did okay and did you explain uh the interaction between local law enforcement and the Secret Service and that local law enforcement was responsible for securing the perimeter of the building where the shooter was I said that the Secret Service is responsible for Designing and implementing and executing the security plan and that we rely on the assistance of our local law enforcement Partners to assist us with that plan let me ask you something uh were you given any instructions about what you can and cannot answer here today my uh ability to answer questions is solely reflective of the fact that there are multiple ongoing investigations and I want to make sure that I provide accurate information that doesn't conflict with any of those investigations that are going on so is it your view that you can't talk about anything that happened that day until those investigations are completed my view is that I want to make sure that this committee uh and the American public gets correct and actual information and so is it your view that that has to that can only happen after the completion of the investigation it is my view that uh when the investigations are complete that we will be able to share that information and how about before that if I have factual information that I can share before that I absolutely will I'm guessing you have factual information as to when the suspicious uh photograph the photograph of the suspicious person was relayed to the Secret Service there's a time stamp on that text message or whatever it was correct sir I'm sure you can understand that uh when you're dealing with text messages emails uh and other Communications the timelines don't always match up not not really if they're timestamped but let me let me move on um because you have acknowledged that this was a major security failure is that right yes do you acknowledge that it was a major security failure not to secure the rooftop of the building that the shooter shot from I believe at this time that the rooftop was provided OverWatch I acknowledge that we are unaware at this time how the individual was able to access the roof OverWatch meaning from other counter sniper other uh higher points correct um and so was it a failure then that when that uh shooter was on the roof top that OverWatch did not identify him before he fired his shots I don't have the timeline of how the individual accessed the roof where they accessed the roof or how long they were on the roof let me ask a Qui a couple things quickly um you have testified here about all the resources that the Secret Service needed to deploy to protect uh the NATO Summit and all of the leaders here is that right yes um does did you have to rely more on local law enforcement because of the NATO Summit for this event the Secret Service routinely works with uh local law enforcement at every event uh it doesn't matter whether it is a NATO Summit nsse the DN uh I'm sorry the RNC and no but that's not my question obviously there's a natural give and take as to I'm sure how many agents you deploy and how much you rely on local law enforcement did you have to rely more on local law enforcement because there were fewer Secret Service assets available because of the NATO Summit no um I hope we get answers before the completion uh I don't like the fact that the media has received far more answers than Congress has um if this is a function of getting your ducks in a row I I assume you have access to a lot of these reports and a lot of this information and you should have come prepared here today um and I would just want to flag Mr chairman before you before um I yield back that I I want to just point out one thing that that my colleague from Texas uh was talking about uh when he said he recreated the shooting twice with an AR-15 and he had a 94% success rate 15 out of 16 shots I don't know why that doesn't convince him that we should get rid of AR-15s but clearly we need to do something about the prevalence of AR-15s and weapons of war on our streets and I yield back chair now recognize Mr Perry from Pennsylvania thank you chairman director I guess 60 days is the time of the investigation is that is that the information that you've put out or where did that come from 60 days or is that just information that the committee members are talking about I stated that earlier today I've asked okay 60 days so are so are you receiving regular updates you're in charge of the Secret Service this is about your organization what happened nine days ago are you receiving regular updates from the FBI on their investigation yes I am so you know some things are true some things are probably not true we want to talk to you about the things that we're hearing about and find out if they're true have you you've been in contact with the FBI then you're getting updates on a daily basis right yes Bas based on what okay so and are you confident that the person in question Mr Crooks was the only person firing that day against the president or the crowd he is he the only one I'm not asking you yet if he acted alone but is he the only one or can you say that with certainty to the American people that is the information I have at this time yes okay did he does it appear he acted alone that's the information we have at this time okay now let's talk about the fact that he was no as a person of interest of concern suspicion as you say your Pi team um how do they stay in there's a sea of people how does the pi team get to that individual that's in question in the sea of people how they how's that individual tracked our protective intelligence teams that work at our sites are paired up with a local police counterpart uh and so they work in conjunction together they just follow them around or let let me ask you this looking at the site you have multiple perimeters right you have the secure perimet the inside Perimeter you have multiple secure or multiple perimeters was the AGR so-called building the highest location affecting the site of the rally was it the highest location I believe the highest location at the site was where our counter snipers were what about the water tower adjacent what about the how high is the water tower I don't have the uh height on the water tower okay um seems like water towers are pretty high at least in the photo it looks like it might be there might be actually be a building right behind the AGR building that is even higher than the building that Crooks fired from you're familiar with cover concealment and defilade right you're familiar with those terms yes so how would your sniper team or your Pi team track the individual and give vectors to Secret Service on the pi team to get to that individual to question him and how would you cover the defilade the cover and concealment of low areas that you can't see from where your sniper team immediately adjacent to the president were was were cited H how would you do that if you're not up on The High Ground so when our counter sniper teams go out and conduct in advance they have a methodology and provide a grid system uh that our response teams are able to uh Vector in if they see something that is troubling so when Mr Jordan asked about the the assets that were requested let me just ask you about assets requested were were aerial assets requested for this event from either the Secret Service or State Police or anybody else drone manned otherwise aerial assets were they requested I can't speak to what the local police ask if they were requested conversations with the local police but I can tell you that the assets that were requested from the Secret Service for the site that day were all granted but were aerial assets re I'm just I didn't ask if you used them or what you used were they requested OverWatch was requested and Prov is that aerial because OverWatch could mean on the Water Tower or not on the water to air can you be specific ma'am I'm running out of daylight here I understand if you're asking me uh about specifics whether or not there was is it not clear what I'm asking you were aerial assets requested by by the president by secret service by anybody were they requested the Secret Service we felt that we had a a good plan in place okay okay fair enough how about K9 assets with bomb sniffing or explosive sniffing capabilities requested didn't say they were present were they requested those requests were fulfilled they were requested and fulfilled so was the crooks vehicle inside any of your perimeters no it was not it was not how did you so okay so it was not within the it was not so what was there a device located on Mr Crook's body to detonate the vehicle that is the information that I have so what would be the point of detonating the vehicle if it was not inside the perimeter I have no idea what Mr Crook's motivation was ma'am the fact that you have't I Clos with this Mr chairman haven't even visited the site I understand there are other things going on but the culture of your organization the culture that doesn't do you know how tall the president is how tall is the president president Trump how tall is he I don't he's over six feet tall I don't okay so do you assign agents based on their ability to cover physically and carry and carry if necessary the president of the United States when you assign them to this mission is that a parameter that is considered I assign agents to work our protectees that are capable and have been trained by secrets I understand they're trained but if you're not tall enough it has nothing to do with we're not mad at you but if somebody's 7 feet tall and you're 5 feet tall there's going to be a Delta there that is problematic in protecting the protecting and I'm asking is that a consideration when you was when these agents not saying you but when they're assigned to the protecte the agents that are assigned to our protectees are perfectly capable okay' so the culture is what I'm concerned about because the primary objective here seems to be something other than securing the site securing the the principle and securing the people at the site and that's the concern based on the answers that you've given today so far without a yield Mr chairman chair no recognizes Mr moscowitz from Florida uh thank you Mr chairman thank you for the this hearing uh I want to thank uh your The subpoena that you sent I want to thank uh ranking member Rasin and your work the letter you sent to the committee and I also support the creation of a commission to get to the bottom of what happened director I I just want to give you an honest assessment of how this is going for you today did you happen to catch the hearing many months ago in education where there were a bunch of University professor of University presidents and Elise stonic asked a very easy question and couldn't get an answer did you see that hearing no I don't think I did okay well let me tell you it didn't go well and the short end of that story was those University professors all resigned they're gone that's how this is going for you th this is where this is headed okay this is I I don't know who prepared you for this I don't know how many times you've testified in front of Congress but a president was almost assassinated live on television not just for Americans but for the world to see and this being your first opportunity I understand there's an on going investigation I understand there's things that you can not talk about but the the idea that we're getting less than you did on television is something that Democrats Independents or Republicans are going to find unacceptable my high school margorie stowman Douglas was on the list of mass shootings that representative rank arasin held up that very day the school resource officer a police officer did not run into the building he hid in the stairwell while the shooter was in the building stayed outside never helped okay he also directed other officers who showed up on the scene not to go into the building when it was determined that the failures in response and training and that the sheriff fired nobody in his agency Governor D santis then removed that sheriff I supported the removal so here's my question you said there's going to be accountability I understand you don't want to give us names when you say that are you telling the committee that once it's concluded you're prepared to f the people on the ground who made poor decisions that day I'm prepared to take the actions necessary no no that's that's nonsense okay accountability the failure was human that doesn't mean they're bad people it means they failed that day and a president was almost a former president was almost assassinated okay are you prepared to fire the human failure on the ground yes or no when you have the names of where those failures were there people people it's not like a piece of technology failed it was people who failed that day are you prepared to fire them I don't have an answer as to whether it well then how can there be accountability if you're not prepared to fire someone and the reason why your name is going to be the person who's held accountable the reason why members in this committee are calling for resignation and I join in that or for the president to fire you is because you're saying there's going to be accountability but you can't commit that people are going going to get fired let me ask this question a different way if Trump had been assassinated that day if the gunman had succeeded okay would you have come and tendered your resignation I would still be sitting here because I would want to ensure the Integrity of the investigation totally understand that's a fair answer that you would have set up that process but would you have had the honor to come in front of the committee and say a president was assass former president was assassinated on my watch there should be new leadership I think that I have admitted that there was no no that's what I'm asking would you have tendered your resignation if he had been killed that occurred on my watch and I am accountable for that okay but would you have tendered your resignation if he had been killed I think that I've admitted that I've taken accountability and will take responsibility okay well let me ask a I want to follow up on representative Connelly's question in which he asked about guns and and you were not willing to commit that that makes your job harder this is not about the Second Amendment if there were over 400 million guns on the streets if all of those guns were machine guns would that make your job harder to protect people again I think weapons that are out there if all of those guns were rocketed propelled grenades would that make your job harder yes sir yes okay thank you perfect this is not a trick question thank you okay I I won't ask the other 15 things I was going to do I was going to do drone strikes but it's okay so so that's all we were asking it it creates a challenging environment it has nothing to do with the Second Amendment of people's rights but it does make your job harder so credit to representative Connelly for asking that question one last thing Mr chairman I'll conclude you know there was a question asked is an Iranian assassin more capable than a 20-year-old and I have been tough on Iran I probably have more resolutions on Iran than almost anyone in Congress but I can tell you it isn't Iranians walking into schools and grocery stores and movie theaters and churches it is 20-year-olds right and some of them are mentally unstable and they have access to guns and they're domestic terrorists someone talked about Christopher Ray Christopher Ray has talked about domestic terrorism and so yes we collectively come together on foreign threats and I am not at all debasing the fact that there are foreign threats here and abroad but there are domestic threats and we have to get to the bottom of how we stop domestic terrorism because it was a a 20-year-old who walked into my high school and killed 17 people he was plenty capable and he was an Iranian thank you chair D recognize Mr Timmons from South Carolina thank you Mr chairman dror Shido we've asked you a lot of questions and haven't really got a lot of straight answers I have um intentionally created a line of questioning that I think that you can't answer so the first question is do you agree that the allocation of secret service resources should correspond with the risk profile of Any Given event uh higher degree of risk at one event should get more resources is that fair that is fair okay and when two events occur at the same time in the same Geographic vicinity that the risk profile of each event should be taken into account in whichever event is greater risk should receive greater resources that is correct okay so I'm going to go over the Trump event so this was publicly announced July 3rd Butler Pennsylvania the venue is an outdoor Fairground open air no existing security um the crowd size is was expected to be tens of thousands it ended up being over 20,000 um there were General and specific threats from foreign adversaries as the chairman of intelligence uh remarked Iran has said they want revenge as well as um when President Trump was in office he um made a lot of people mad teror to be included all over the world and you know president Trump is the former president and the future president so I would say that that is a fairly high-risk event would you agree yes okay let's conversely um the first lady had an event at a casino in Pittsburgh just doz few dozen miles away it was a dinner for the Italian Sons and Daughters of America it was publicly announced on July 10th what's interesting is that the casino is actually extremely secure they already have magnetometers uh existing prior to this event even being announced it was in a ballroom and the size of the crowd a mere 400 uh there were no specific threats there may have been General General threats uh and the um asset is the first lady um those seem like there's a huge disparity uh relative to risk would you agree yes okay thank you um multiple whistleblowers and various media Outlets have reported that the Pittsburgh field office of the Secret Service allocated 12 additional post standers to the first ladies event and three additional post standers to the Trump rally is that correct there were no assets that were diverted from the first no no no no this is a very simple question I'm not asking anyone was diverted did the first ladies event that was relatively secure especially compared to Trump's rally get 12 assets and the first did the first ladies event get 12 assets and trumps get three from the Pittsburgh field office it's that's a yes or no you don't know don't answer it I mean if you don't know of personnel that were allocated to both of those events were comparable to the risk at both of those events wow really so you think that the Pittsburgh Casino 400 person in a ballroom with Ingress egress through probably a very well-guarded parking garage was four times more dangerous than a 20,000 person rally in open field with uh the former president future president you think that that's four times times more dangerous the casino event I didn't say that at all well they got four times of resources from the Pittsburgh field office who was likely in charge of the final walkthrough for both for both events I mean we've continually highlighted the failures uh of the secret service at the Trump rally and you know you have the the former and future president getting shot you have uh multiple uh injuries one fatality and I would have to think that if we had nine more post standards nine more individuals that have the training and the integration into the Secret Service uh defense of of trump at that rally that I have a feeling that Crooks would have had somebody come say hello to him before he fired a bunch of shots what do you think that's possibly true there were significantly more assets and resources available at the former president's event than there were at the first who made the decision to deploy 12 uh post standers to the casino uh where the first lady was having a 400 person dinner and only three people people from the Pittsburgh field office to the 20,000 plus person plus Trump rally who made that decision there were additional secret service resources available at the former president Trump's event who made the decision to deploy 12 to the first ladyes event and three to the Trump event the allocation of resources is decided based on the availability of personnel and their location and where they are but there were sufficient resources what did you just were given did you just say there were sufficient resources president Trump got shot someone got killed there were not sufficient resources clearly ites it doesn't take 27 years of experience to know that and whoever made that decision it probably wasn't you needs to be fired and then you need to resign because this is absolutely unacceptable you've lost the trust of the American people with that Mr chairman I yield back gentan yields back chair I recognize Mr TB from Michigan thank you so much Mr chair thank you director for being here you know when we hear the the headline of 20 year yearold young man with access to an assault weapon commits an Mass you know Act of mass violence I mean we've heard this before over and over again but the unfortunate thing is that my residents don't get a Committee hearing we have not had one Committee hearing about the over 260 mass shootings that we've had killing hundreds of people injuring hundreds changing their lives forever and don't get me wrong to many of my colleagues I mean I watched and even the pool of blood the screams it was horrific but it made me think about the images I saw after mass shootings at schools grocery stores I mean I think of Buffalo New York at a supermarket where a racist gunman killed 10 Shoppers with an AR in El Paso AK-47 style assault rifle killed 22 in Florida in Parkland Florida 17 students and teachers murdered again with an AR in Pittsburgh at a place of Faith Tree of Life synagogue 11 murdered and don't get me about Newton Connecticut which still breaks my heart 26 murdered including 20 elementary school children this year in Michigan we've had Mr chair two mass shootings 21 shot in Detroit biggest large one of the most horrific shootings we've seen two killed at a splash pad in Rochester Hills Michigan eight shot there again an assault weapon used but the difference here is the former president gets a hearing in his attempt to S but my our residents don't get a hearing about mass shootings about gun violence in our country you know Mr chair I I ask this wholeheartedly you know they don't have Secret Service to protect them they don't I don't have these Mass agencies protecting our kids in the schools or the supermark and movie theaters or going to a black party in Detroit I don't have that we don't have that but I can't believe we're just going to focus on that and not the fact that we're hearing yet again in the headlines a 20-year-old young man having access to an assault weapon a weapon of War many of my veterans say they have to be trained to use but he can get it wasn't safely stored by the parent grabbing that gun and innocent lives or lost director I know you got asked about this and and I think it's important though you you know for us to hear this but how how difficult is your job when there's such easy access to assault weapons in the streets I think the job of a secret service agent and officer is incredibly difficult I think the environment we deal with every day and the Dynamics of the threat environment is uh incredibly difficult these are brave men and women who put their lives on the line and a day like we had on July 13th is a day that no one in my agency ever wants to have as their responsibility it is it is an incredible incredibly difficult job yeah I immediately thought of the children in the audience I mean when you think about going to Rally with your family um again their lives are forever changed the incident wasn't are never isolated I really believe these incidents are never isolated and I know Detroit Free Press had reported that the 20-year-old uh Pennsylvania shooter looked up the 2021 Oxford High School shooting in in Michigan can you comment on what information this shooter was looking up in regarding the tragedy of Oxford High School where it took four of our high school youth there I'm sorry I'm not able to uh the FBI has those details so you can't even tell us I mean was he looking at the type of weapon how many yeah unfortunately I don't have those details do you have I mean did they share that with you though I don't have the full content of what his searches were I think that they are still in the process of uh examining all of his devices okay um again you know again the impact I I want to be really serious about this the impact on our families is more than just this political rally Mr chair we have to talk about this even if we're in disagreement let's talk about it because I've seen statistics that show that we could be saving lives now if we ban these weapons of war from our uh from being able to buy it at the local store down the street I mean we just can't continue to allow this to happen and unfortunately my colleague my my residents are not former presidents of the United States they don't get a hearing they don't get secret service any of that and even among those that are are expressing the failed in the system they just deserve better they truly do thank you and I yield chair now recognize Mr burett from Tennessee thank you Mr chairman uh miss cheel the shooter was set up on the roof of the AGR International building as we know was the roof identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally to my knowledge yes it was were agents or officers inside the building if so what floor were they on we had local police officers inside the building the roof looks like it's a tin roof how did no one inside that building hear someone moving on top of a metal roof I don't have the details of all of the interviews that have been conducted yet when will you have those I have been asking and I want to have that information uh as soon as as you do as okay why did Secret Service fail to block the line of sight from that roof I think that the Secret Service put together a plan where they were counting that roof in as part of their OverWatch and that was the plan that they had put in place that day if you weren't going to put a security Personnel on the roof why not at least use drone technology or aerial surveillance to monitor the rally there are a number of times that we do use uh drone technology I'm not speaking specifically to this event and what was utilized or not uh there are times when drone technology is available and helpful at events and there are times when it is not appropriate do y'all use signal do you use personally use signal to communicate with any official from the White House signal on your phone oh uh on occasion uh I'm sure that there are people that use signal yes okay do you person do you use it to speak with the White House use signal no I do not okay when was Thomas Crooks first identified as a person of interest let me help you at 510 he was uh spotted with a rangefinder at 551 secrets and and when did you when did Secret Service notice him again I don't have those specific timelines but it was a relatively short period of time let me help you 552 Miss cheel why was President Trump allowed on stage 10 minutes after the Secret Service spotted a suspicious individual that seems to me to be the worst thing of all all the breakdown and all this communication all the BS you've been feeding us here today are not feeding us that seems to be the the the question so i' as I've stated before there are a number of events where suspicious people may be uh identified uh that doesn't necessarily ma'am I I submit to you you got a guy who's going to be the next president United States he's on stage I've been to these events we've all been to these events a car backfires and there's a 15-minute dad gam wait this that's not acceptable did the Secret Service tell president Trump they'd they' spotted a suspicious individual before he was shot I am uh unclear as to what the communication was with the former president okay I'll take that as a no um did y'all deny president Trump's request for more security yes or no and when was the when was the most recent request for additional security the rally request uh for security uh all of those requests were fulfilled and were there any Personnel redirected to Joe Biden's rally no who made the decision on the direction of of of agents at either one of those rallies I'm unclear as to your question on the direction of the agents I said who directed those agents to be it Miss Biden's Rally or president Trump's rally the specific agents so there is a uh a methodology in which agents are available for assignments uh and they are assigned based on either geographic location or Logistics or flight I appreciate all that but that methodology about got president Trump killed was the security detail regarding president Trump a temporary detail the Personnel who are assigned to the pr former president's detail are uh assigned to him why why was there a different detail on the opening night of the convention than the the detail that was guarding him in Pennsylvania the president has a very large uh permanent protective detail assigned to him uh they work shift work and so it could be that people you saw at the rally uh were not working the same shift the day that he was ass you ma'am somebody that's a lot shorter than the president was not at the convention and the people that were cing down behind the the mass of of of agents that were on top of the president were not in the convention hall at least I didn't see them you can't answer it seem to answer a single question about an ongoing investigation ma'am and you don't know when the information will be released publicly are you waiting for the administration to sign off no I am waiting for the results of the investigation at which time I ask you one more question you found explosives in the shooter's possession is that correct the FBI found explosives do we know how who directed this young man how to make those explosives I believe that the FBI is still looking into that on their investigation miss cheel you said that the buck stops with me and I agree I don't think you should resign I think you should have been fired ma'am you are a Dei Horror Story I've told my daughter multiple times my wife and my daughter we talk about her all the time about how she's going to succeed in life she'll succeed in life by achieving ma'am you have not achieved today you let the American public down if it was up to me you'd be gone thank you Mr speak Mr chairman chair now recognize Mr Crockett from Texas thank you so much Mr chair and let me just pick up where um my colleague from Tennessee left off uh director Cheeto was the incident on July 13th due to Dei or rather systemic failures in communication and potentially safety protocols the incident on the 13th has nothing to do with Dei the incident on the 13th has to do with a failure or a gap uh either in planning or communication thank you so much in fact um I have a few articles that I will enter into the record uh once I wrap up that actually uh acknowledge a number of women specifically um for their Valor in their service whether it's been in various levels of law enforcement but you know I I want to stick here for for just a second because earlier you had a conversation in which there was a discussion about training and I I want to talk about training and I want to talk about the fact that there's been a little bit of dancing around as it relates to this being a suspicious person and this being a situation that was perceived to be a threat and it seems as if there's a different analysis that takes place Place one of my questions has to do with if you have any bias training that your officers undergo and the reason that I asked that because as a civil rights lawyer I have learned so many times in having to deal with law enforcement that there usually is not a perception of a threat when it is a young white male even if they are carrying a long gun yet a lot of times at least in this country when it comes to law enforcement there is a perceived threat just by somebody having a little bit more melanin In Their Skin So I'm curious to know because a lot of times one of the things that we have consistently pushed for on my side of things and when I say my side is once we are looking at a tragedy in which law enforcement made an error um is the bias training and whether or not our officers are getting it so I'm curious to know in some of the training that you talk about that is part of your budget has bias training been part of that yes it is okay thank you um I I know that today is a rough day it and and on that day in Pennsylvania it was a rough day and the reality is that I understand it and you may or may not know the answer to this question um in the space in which this event took place it was an open carry space is that correct that is correct okay so I hail from the state of Texas and interestingly enough I was serving in the state house right after there was a mass shooting in El Paso we had an opportunity to do right by our citizens in Texas but we did not instead they passed permitless carry and what my colleagues kept trying to get you to answer because we want to come up with Solutions we don't want to keep pointing the finger and right now you've got a bunch of fingers that are pointed at you but our job is to solve problems for the American people and to be perfectly honest the numbers are clear I had I think almost every Major law enforcement agency come forward and say that they were against permitless carry because they said that their jobs will be made more difficult unfortunately my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in the state of Texas decided that they would ignore those warnings and they passed the law instead and right after they passed that law we ended up with Uvalde and we heard the stories of those officers that were scared to go in and save those babies because of the firearm in which that in that case 18-year-old had in his hands they also were given an opportunity to say hey raise the age and make it to where at least you have to be 21 before you can possess this type of weapon and they chose not to and we have the facts it shows and I'll enter this into the record as well if there is no objection deaths from Firearms keep climbing in Texas decades after lawmakers began weakening gun regulations that is from the Texas Tribune without objection to order thank you so much the last thing that I'm just going to make a point of saying is that we all care about this issue because we know that there has been a spike in violence political violence in this country are you aware of the fact that the numbers are higher right now okay in addition to that and and I'm going to point a little blame at ourselves because right now you got all the fingers pointed at you but the reality is that we have a number of congressional members that are consistently engaging in violent rhetoric and it needs to be toned down the reality is that people are listening and they're paying attention but unfortunately another thing that is happening because we're not getting answers from from you today is the conspiracy theories they have already began have you heard of any of the conspiracies yes okay the problem with these conspiracies is that when people believe that say the president of the United States ordered a hit or they believe it was an inside job or whatever conspiracies they believe because they don't have any facts in front of them that potentially incites the next level of violence at the next event in retaliation for this so we are only begging for your job as as it relates to being the director as well well as the men and women that you are protecting as their director that you keep them safe by making sure that the American people have the information that they need so that they can feel as if Secret Service is on the side of the American people and ma'am I don't doubt that secret service is on the side of the American people but right now so long as these conspiracy theories continue to Fester it is going to make your job that much harder thank you so much and I yield chair now recognizes Miss margorie Taylor Green from Georgia Thank you Mr chairman um Miss Cheeto I'd like to remind you that you're under oath the site team has a senior supervisor an advanced team a protective intelligence team a counter sniper element and detail who was the agent in charge how long has she been the agent in charge and what is her Secret Service background so I'm not going to provide a name why not you're here to answer our questions this forum I'm not going to provide names of stated in your testimony you said I am here today to answer your questions that is correct answer the question I'm not going to provide names of our Personnel to today the American people are demanding these answers from you today Miss cheel I will do the best to provide you accurate information based on the facts that I have at this time you're not answering our questions the advance element coordinates with other Intel or law enforcement Partners identifies threats and weaknesses at the sites and movements we'd like a copy of the advanced report have you brought it here with you today we will comply with the request for the documentation that has been requested when will that be Miss cheel because you should have brought it today I am certain that our Personnel are working on uh obtaining all of that documentation I don't believe you and neither do the people watching this hearing you're not doing well as Mr Mo moscowitz informed you you've been sitting here for over three hours and I have you know the entire country is demanding you resign and demanding that you be fired if you do not resign things are not going well for you you need to answer the questions was there a protective intelligence team and what Technical Resources were utilized for that event specifically drone or helicopter assets there were a number of technical assets that were deployed for that event and there was a protective intelligence team that was assigned to that event why was Kooks able to fly a drone over the entire area the day of the rally and the day of his assassination attempt to my knowledge he did not fly the drone over the entire area how did he fly a drone over the area period any part of the area again I would have to go back and check the timeline of when that took place and when the event why didn't you bring the timeline with you today to answer our questions I don't have all of the answers on the timelines based on the criminal investig you not prepared today to answer our questions I am prepared to answer the questions based on the information uh and wanted to be able to provide do you have a timeline that you do you have a timeline at all from from any of the day I have a uh timeline that does not have specifics that's shocking I that is absolutely unacceptable that means you are a failure at your job let's talk talk about things that are prohibited in Trump rallies and I've been to a lot of trump rallies backpacks and bags bicycles Firearms uh any type of weapon or any other item determined to be a potential safety hazard like a range a rangefinder would be one uh at 510 Crooks is first observed by one of the snipers AGR sniper 1 at the building 510 510 president shot President Trump was shot in the face at 611 p.m. 528 AGR sniper 1 takes a picture of a bicycle and two bags those belong to Crooks 532 a sniper one spots Crooks looking at his phone and using a rangefinder 555 Butler ESU command confirms receipt of photos and States they have been relayed on 6 5m. AGR sniper 1 later communicates that Crooks has seen moving Northeast in direction of sheets and that Crooks has a backpack two minutes before the shooting while President Trump has been allowed to take the stage people see Crooks laying on his stomach in a sniper position on the roof and they're yelling he has a gun and they are trying to alert law enforcement and Secret Service why was Kooks not shot by a sniper by the snipers why was he allowed to be there as soon as the individual was identified as a threat they were no no no no no no what do you consider to be a threat a man with a gun laying in a sniper position a man that had a backpack a man that had a bicycle a man that had a range finder at what point is he determined a threat an individual with a backpack is not a threat an individual with a rangefinder is not a threat what about a man laying on a building that has direct line of sight of President Trump with a gun that people are screaming and pointing out is that a threat Miss cheel once that individual was identified they were neutralized no they were neutralized Kooks was neutralized after he shot President Trump in the face Miss cheel is he only a threat once he fires the weapon as soon as the counter sniper identified that individual they were able to neutralize them how were people in the crowd okay then let's just take it this way people under your command did not consider him to be a threat yet people in the crowd knew he had a gun and considered him to be a threat that means that you are a complete failure as the Director of the Secret Service that people under your command don't perceive a man laying on a roof with direct line to the president with a gun they don't perceive that to be a threat yet the people in the crowd do how is that possible that's the last question but please answer the question M uh director I'm not certain at this time how the information from the people in the crowd was relay to any law enforcement Personnel no you knew that everyone knew the people there knew that there was a danger they knew there was a a threat to president Trump and it was allowed to happen was there a standown order Miss cheel was there a conspiracy to kill President Trump absolutely not then how did this happen and why are you still sitting here not turning in your letter of resignation last question please answer and then I'll recognize Mr Presley please answer that question that is what we are investigating to determine we're we're waiting for your letter we are waiting for your letter of resignation and you you really need to consider doing that before you leave today thank CH chair now recognize Miss Presley from Massachusetts thank you no one absolutely no one should fear for their life at a political rally in a classroom in a faith house or in their home we must do something about political violence in all its forms and gun violence in all of its forms now director cheel you have noted that numerous investigations are ongoing related to the Secret Service response and that we can expect a report in the next 60 days with the election nearly 100 days away that is an unacceptable timeline and it makes people less safe it also allows my colleagues across the aisle Republicans additional time to spread dangerous misinformation which also puts People In Harm's Way some Republicans have exploited this moment to continue to attack progress towards racial Justice and gender equity in America disappointing but not surprising I hesitate to repeat their racist and sexist tropes but in summary Republicans have wrongfully and shamefully stated that hiring women and people of color hindered the response to the shooting now this is part and parcel of Republican strategy to constantly attack necessary diversity equity and inclusion efforts to undermine the contributions that women people of color the disability community and others make to this country each and every day and it is disgraceful in the wake of gun violence and tragic loss of life Republicans are ignoring Solutions like gun safety reform and instead trotting out sexist tropes can't say I'm surprised I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record reporting from CNN titled right-wing media figures blame women in Secret Service and Dei for security failure in Trump shooting without objection to ordered this article quotes members of Congress and others that plainly accuse Dei and the hiring of women as a liability for the Secret Service women have been an integral part of the agency since 1971 and are held to the same standards as their male counterparts to use them as a scapegoat during a time of Crisis is shameful and it is d dangerously divisive in fact based on recent publicly available demographic data of the agency the largest demographic groups among special agents are white and male but to right-wing extremists the truth doesn't matter the lies they tell to advance their anti-diversity agenda which is a key theme throughout project 2025 will only make the American public less safe and more divided and every day director Cheeto that you fail to give us answers they are given more oxygen to make their baseless claims that women and people of color are responsible for tragic events and that is dangerous too thank you and I yield my remaining time to ranking member Rasin uh thank you to the distinguished gentle lady from Massachusetts and thank you for those trenchant insights um I wanted to make the the point that that you were making and several of other members were making to bring it into sharp relief here um the very same day that uh Donald Trump uh narrowly escaped an assassination attempt um but an honored firefighter was gunned down and killed and other people were injured there was another mass shooting that day uh just several hours later in Birmingham Alabama four people killed and 10 wounded in a nightclub shooting and you might think oh that's some kind of freakish coincidence not at all we have more than one mass shooting a day in America they are so commonplace now that they are barely reported in the national news it's of course local news in Birmingham Alabama that four people were killed and 10 other people were shot and seriously wounded being treated at the hospital uh these things are a nightmare for the families of the victims who've been killed for the families who have to take care of people who've been seriously injured and wounded they are a major Financial drain publicly and privately and yet we allow um AR-15s to be purchased with abandon promiscuously all over the country people can just go out and get an assault weapon and the distinguished General lady from Michigan was right we have a hearing when it affects the president of the United States but on all the other days of the year we don't have a hearing about it and I think it is because of an honest disagreement we have about the Second Amendment there are some people who think the Second Amendment means you've got the right to arm yourself with whatever Weaponry you need to overthrow the government of the United States and we reject that as a false interpretation of the Second Amendment and a false false interpretation of the Constitution we can ban assault weapons we did it back in 1994 it dramatically reduced these mass shootings and when that ban was lifted the mass shootings went up through the roof again and we've shown it and so just like we're demanding real answers and real action from the Secret Service let us demand real action and real answers from ourselves about the nightmare of Mass Gun Violence which puts America into a c category all its own when you compare us to the countries in the European Union or Canada or other similarly situated countries there's nothing like what we're going through so we've got to act on the Secret Service to protect ourselves against political violence and we got to act as a Congress to protect ourselves against AR-15 violence in America chair recognizes Miss mlan from Michigan thank you uh Mr chairman and first of all I want to thank the Secret Service agents those who work tireless ly to protect our presidents and specifically those agents who did not hesitate to jump in front of President Trump and my heart goes out to the family um of the compur family and the people at the rally who are still recovering um on the other hand the secret service has a leadership problem and and it falls on you and although I appreciate your Hollow words that the buck stops here I was actually actually hoping for some answers director cheel you must answer to the American people if you want to stay in charge it's it's really really simple you want to keep your job right absolutely okay the best way to keep your job is to answer the questions not play this shell game not saying The Slim Shady song wasn't me I I mean come on how long did you prepare for this hearing I've been preparing for this hearing over the weekend and into last week okay five days six days as soon as I was notified and how long was that about this hearing okay four days I began preparing four days three days I'm not sure the date that I got the the letter asking me to be here what are you sure of are you sure of the color of your hair are you sure the color of your suit I'm just like tell the American people what are you sure of you don't even know when you started preparing for the hearing I mean the biggest hearing of your life and you have no clue you can't remember when you started preparing for this hearing can you understand why those words seem Hollow to the American people who are supposed to entrust their faith in you I assure you the moment I received notification but you can't remember you got little Alzheimer's dementia going I mean what you can't remember I have several active investigations going on in an operational agency to run okay all right but you want to take accountability right the buck stops with you right I am taking accountability super then let's start with trying to answer some questions you keep referring to the FBI when asked how many shell casings were on the roof you referred to the FBI when asked if there were explosive in the car you referred to the FBI when asked if Crooks was acting alone you referred to the FBI see a common theme here I can go on and on my question is is who at the FBI should I speak with wait for it wait for it the FBI is responsible for the criminal inv is there a name I'm not certain I'm not certain all right here we go I'm not certain I don't know let me ask a different question have you been in communication with the FBI yes I have with whom I speak with the director and the deputy director okay and what have they shared with you about this investigation so I'll give you an a an an opportunity to answer again did they share with you how many shell casings were on the roof they have shared with me the evidence did they they share with you how many shell casing were on the roof yes and okay how many were there I would refer to the FBI for their investig many were there and their information that they need to share in their investig so they've shared the information with you you just don't want to share the information with us correct we have concurrent investigations that are going on so they have shared this information with you you know the answer to the question you just refer refuse to answer the question from the member of Congress who has subpoenaed you to be here is there a different answer to that question I was always willing to come here and tell testify before this oversight hearing beautiful then let's do that let's let's for once have your actions match your words so you've been in the in in communication with the FBI you know the answers and you refuse to tell us the answers so I will ask you again you know how many shell casings were on that roof what is the answer to that question I think it's pertinent what is the answer to that question I think it's pertinent to talk to you about the information that the secret service has and that the Secret Service knows related I'm asking you an answer to the question if you're supposed to be in charge if the buck stops with you how come you can't share the answers what are you covering up I'm what are you hiding my friend I'm not covering anything up then why can't you answer a simple question I would leave it to the criminal investigation to answer questions related to that when when you talk to the FBI and you ask them how many explosiv well let me ask you did you ask them how many explosives were on the roof did they answer that question or in the car excuse me did they answer that question for you yes yes so you know the answer to that question that my colleagues have asked you but again you refuse to give us the answers you're playing this wasn't me well I submit to you if you can't and it's not a can't it's a won't it's not a can't it's not a I don't know it's a I choose not to answer the question well let me tell you miss cheel if you're going to lead you need to lead if you want to be in charge then answer the question or step aside and have someone with the courage and the guts to answer to the American people the questions that they deserve answers to and with that I yield back chair now recognize Miss bobert from Colorado thank you Mr chairman I'm going to continue down that vein um you have been here sitting today director cheel uh definitively able to dismiss erroneous uh information and speculation however you are refusing to answer questions that we now know that you have the information for you are are saying that you are wanting to answer questions that the uh secret service has information to Well ma'am you are the Secret Service you are the director you have said that you are the best for the job so I'm going to ask you some questions now now knowing that you do have answers from the FBI whom you have been passing the buck to this entire day and um I'll start with something that you know maybe the FBI doesn't know because it's has to do with you personally you said you spoke with President Trump after the assassination attempt and I want to know did you apologize to him directly for nearly having president Trump killed yes I did I appreciate that I appreciate that you recognize that this was your failure now since the assassination attempt you are under oath reminding you have you communicated with anyone at the White House on an encrypted messaging app like signal yes or no no I have not are you willing to surrender your personal phone for analysis uh if I am required to do so okay um I will look into making that request because I would like to see your personal phone to see if you're communicating over encrypted uh messaging apps have you um ever turned down enhanced security requests from Donald Trump's detail um his special agent in charge Sean Karan you ever turned that down no I have not have there been re has has your team has a secret service maybe not you personally I believe as I mentioned earlier there are times when requests are made for you have denied them they have been denied and a denial doesn't has the Trump campaign made requests for additional assets that have been denied denial doesn't mean vulnerability have there been additional requests for enhanced security at maral Lago uh we have made a number of enhancements to you confirmed that there were bomb sniffing dogs that were provided you failed to confirm if there were aerial security surveillance uh assets that were provided so yes or no was that provided at the rally at the rally yes ma'am we had OverWatch provided at the rally you've confirmed that the Assassin was identified as suspicious 57 minutes prior to the shooting was the suspicious individual ever approached by an agent was any contact ever made with him uh not to my knowledge is that the standard protocol for someone who is identified as suspicious the protocol would be to locate the individual and and you said that he was located two to five times approximately no I said that the information was passed potentially somewhere between two to five he was never located by an agent to my knowledge that individual was not located by an agent we have we have dozens of rally-goers who have identified him and not one agent on the ground there are many many many agents on the ground local law enforcement Secret Service no one was able to identify him and have sights on and and see him what I'm saying is that the agents that were on the ground at the time I have no knowledge that they were able to uh interview him or locate him thank you was was there um a local law enforcement officer who approached the roof and saw the shooter uh and and saw that he was present on the roof that is the information that has been shared with you have you spoke to that local law enforcement officer no I have not are you going to it is part of a criminal investigation that the FBI is interviewing those individuals were agents stationed on the water tower no why that would not be something uh that would be included in a security plan has a man who is reported to have been present um wearing a great suit who allegedly requested a photo of the dead body of the assassin on top of the AGR roof been identified I don't have that information is that something that you've heard of no we're ATF agents present at the rally to attend or to work to work not to my knowledge how long did the counter sniper have Crooks in his in his sights before the shooter opened fire on President Trump I don't have that specific timeline will you be able to tell us if he communicated with other agents on what he was seeing through his sites once I have that information absolutely because we need to know why he waited for multiple rounds to be fired at president Trump before the threat was neutralized we need to know if he was given an order to hold fire now it's um you've excused the roof of being being um unmanned because of the slope of the roof do you continue to assert the slope of the roof as a credible reason for leaving this position undefended first I'll go back and correct that there was no order to hold fire our agents and officers uh have the ability to neutralize a threat at the time they see it I'm sorry you don't know the communication that was taking place or how long he had admit his SES because you haven't spoke to him but you do know that there was no order to hold fire I can tell you the way that our Personnel are trained they are trained on the use of force scale that when they see a threat they are authorized to neutralize that threat there is no they don't have to ask for permission you excuse the roof being unmanned because of the slope do you stand by that assertion the roof was not covered with an individual on it because there was OverWatch provided apparently not no there was no OverWatch provided this is is very evident president Trump was shot a man died there was no oversight provided I I I find this rather maddening especially now knowing that you do have answers from the FBI who you have been passing the buck to this entire hearing not answering a congressional hearing members of Congress while you were under oath and under a subpoena I I find it maddening that the director um that that our country has come C meters away from Oblivion under your watch you have answers you are refusing to give those to us it uh directing us to the FBI and this entire thing is a waste of time you you are responsible for the loss of a life and the shooting that took place on President Trump you do need to resign this is bipartisan you need to be fired you do not need to hold this position you are not the best for this job I am over my time but I I cannot tolerate your watch any longer and I'm going to continue to call daily for you to be removed from your position ma'am chair recognize Mr Fry from South Carolina thank you Mr chairman director cheel how long have you been with the secret service 29 years right that's correct and how long have you been director of The Secret Service just under two years during your tenure as director under the Secret Service I know we're here today to talk about the assassination of ATT on attempt on President Trump but how many other security lapses have occurred with protectees under your watch I don't have a specific number but there have been uh some lapses there have been other lapses was one of them Jake Sullivan yes sir what happened there there was an individual who was able to access uh Mr Sullivan's residence his residence a protecte somebody was able to break into his house and what happened did anyone get fired because of that there were individuals who have been reassigned reassigned what other what other steps have taken what I'm seeing what what other excuse me what other uh incidents have occurred other than Jake Sullivan was there an issue with the secret service agent and vice president Harris I would not call that a security incident well it seems to me I mean you have security lapses with President Trump you have security lapses with Jake Sullivan you have issues uh with your personnel related to vice president kamla Harris there seems to be a repeated theme here would you not agree with that I think that we are talking about separate categories of incidents well I I would disagree with that I I think there's a repeated theme when you've got protectees and you're not you're not upholding your core Mission let me ask you something else uh does the Secret Service routinely record Communications between and amongst detail radio communications any communication email Communications are uh captured as well as uh text messages and then depending on the detail uh radio communications are recorded does the Secret Service have recorded Communications from the July 13th event we do not have radio communications from that day but you have text messages we do have uh email emails and text messages emails okay great does the head of the uh Trump detail or someone else embedded in this detail have command decision- making Authority or do they need to seek authorization from someone outside that detail the head of the detail has uh The decision-mak Authority for things that are necessary for that detail is that standard for protection details yes it is okay let me ask you something um during campaign events is it common for the Secret Service to utilize other agencies yes it is what uh other agencies would be providing assistance to the Secret Service uh there are a number of other agencies that uh provide assistance to the Secret Service during campaigns uh we uh utilize Personnel from the Department of Homeland Security we utilize Personnel from the Department of Defense uh and we utilize local law enforcement partners are you are you on the same radios do you provide the radios to to all the assets that are taking part in protection of an event uh we provide radios to the Personnel from the Department of Homeland Security that are assisting us but not local law enforcement local law enforcement is working on their own radios are you on the same frequency we uh ensure that we have uh counterparts in the security room and so the local law enforcement will place uh one of their personnel uh in the security room with our Personnel so that we have interoperate interoperability Communications we ask you something just about the timeline because I think this is really interesting that we can't nail that down I mean I think there are lay people out there with more knowledge about the timeline than you seem to come before a subpoena in front of Congress was Mr Crooks observed at the AGR building prior to the shooting he was observed on the grounds uh outside of our perimeter prior to the shooting at approximately what time was that you don't have to give me the specific minute but at approximately what time was that I believe it was about 45 minutes or so prior to did did the sniper the sniper team take a photo of Mr Crooks the the local team did yes so it was a local team and not a secret service sniper that took the photo okay and did he relay that photo to Central Command uh again it's an AC of ongoing investigation so we I want to make sure that I'm factual with the route that that photo took and who that was disseminated to and when what time did the um did did the did Mr what when did Mr crooks' status go from a suspicion a person that was uh Under Suspicion to a threat when did that happen for and maybe not even a specific time director cheel maybe a certain event that happened that transformed him from a su a person of Suspicion to a threat when did that happen to the best of my knowledge based on what I've been told thus far it's approximately 5 minutes to where uh individuals relay that there was an incident being or an issue I'm sorry being worked at the 3:00 of the president so that but it was before the shots were fired that is correct but again it was not uh phrased as a threat it was just that something was being worked yeah but my question is when did he become sus when when did he transform from suspicion to threat because they're treated very differently people can be suspicious but they're not a threat until a certain point in time so when did that happen I believe that it was seconds uh before the guns the gunfire started seconds my gosh we actually have a few questions that we got answer today listen I'm going to wrap up here uh Mr chairman but here is the frustration that people have the buck stops with you you've said that yourself but the problem in Washington DC it is the only town in America that you can be so bad it's your job that you actually get a promotion or don't get fired you have not been able to answer the number of Agents uh whether or not requests were denied on additional security whether or not law enforcements were able to engage before the shooting with the Assassin how he got on the roof how the rifle got on the roof you can't tell us how many shots he fired whether the casings were recovered you can't tell us anything about his cell phone you can't tell us uh whether the rally was supposed to be postponed given the intelligence that was you were receiving you can't tell us whether the car had a bomb you can't even tell us his motive and the American people are incredibly distrustful because it has taken 9 days to even get a cintilla of evidence out of you maybe if I was CNN or ABC or NBC I would have gotten much more thorough and accurate information but we have not receed that in a subpoena Hearing in front of this Congress that is why the American people are frustrated and I Echo the bipartisan calls on this committee and all across this country that you should resign or maybe when the president wakes up from his nap he can f you thank you Mr chairman chair now recognizes Miss Luna from Florida director sheel can you please give me the names of the individuals who are in charge of your conop up for the rally I'm not going to release names can you give me the titles and how many individuals no we had a full Advanced team that was responsible for Advan how many people are the final approval Authority there are a number of people that engaged in approving can you me a number no I do not have airm number can you just confirm whether or not I understand this is an open investigation but but in order in order to dispel conspiracy theorist have you guys been able to subpoena the shooters Discord records or has the FBI to your knowledge I believe that the FBI is working on those okay is it factual to say that you have not ruled out that the shooter was working with other people or persons again the FBI is conducting the criminal investigation into can you at least in an effort to dispel conspiracy theories can you confirm or deny that at this time we do not have that there were any other people engaged so you believe he's acting alone I do okay have you been made aware of multiple eye witness reporting that there was a a second shooter on a water tower I do not have any information related to any second shooter okay uh the reason I asked that is because according to testimony from multiple Witnesses they did report that and again I to my understanding there were over 40 sniper teams that were briefed by the butler ESU and I want to make sure that people are where if you're saying that there's not another shooter that we are able to clear that information because from this whole entire briefing it doesn't seem like much information has been able to get out to the American people so I'm trying to dispel rumors as I'm sure you understand um was it true that secret service was present at the butler ESU briefing there was a briefing between the uh counter sniper teams that were working on present yes to my knowledge okay I want to read your report from from people that seem to be throwing you under the bus and stated that they were in attendance and that secret service was not in attendance at the security briefing according to individuals with knowledge to also include that the AGR building where the shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks was located um was actually not a part of their security perimeter for that so there was not Secret Service present um it seems as though that when you were asked earlier from rep Christa morthy about whether whether or not Secret Service was aware of a threat you had said no they were unaware of a threat and yet according to Communications again from La law enforcement that were in some of these group chats they actually had reported that secret service was made aware of a threat at around 5:59 p.m. as a part of the command including Secret Service aware of messages and requests about in uh information about the suspect's location can you please tell me if you have knowledge of that at all again I think we're conflating the T the difference between the term threat and suspicious but you guys did have knowledge at 559 p.m. according to those group chats did you not of a suspicious individual okay um chairman in my opinion According to some of the testimony today I feel that you have perjured yourself in some instances and so I'm going to ask for a full review of the transcripts by staff and if you find that to be the case I do ask that you bring perjury charges against the director um I will say this it it is very frustrating and I've talked to my colleagues and we've said it to your face that you have been up here basically stonewalling our ability to get the answers to the American people and what I will also say is that every single member of Congress does not feel safe with you in charge you have heard that and I think that we are all sitting ducks with you and directing the Secret Service currently uh but more importantly it sends a message to our adversaries that we are not protected and we are one of the strongest countries in the world so you have essentially made us a less safe country because of it um as a result that I'm asking you to formally step down I share my same opinions as my Democrat colleagues and I also think that your efforts to bring forward a full um investigation and report in 60 days is unacceptable and as a result of that I'm going to do everything in my legislative toolkit to ensure that that happen sooner rather than later and I'm sure that you know that we brought a vote on inherent contempt against Garland for essentially blocking a congressional investigation and I don't think that you should be any different so um I will say that I am just completely disgusted by your performance today and I understand that you are probably in a position where you being told not to testify which is why we had to subpoena you I think that goes back to Garland but again that is part of the uh flushing that we need to get out of Washington and I would be happy to assist in that process chairman I yell the rest of my time chair now recognizes Mr Langworthy from New York thank you very much Mr chairman and I appreciate you bringing this U hearing forward with subpoena uh director yesterday I made the decision to get my car and drive to Butler Pennsylvania in preparation for this moment and in asking you questions about uh uh the events of of the assassination attempt on President Trump's life uh i' I've done several presidential Advance uh events in Prior in my career and I I wanted to see this site with my own two eyes because I don't believe the video footage tells the whole story or looking at things on a diagram and I was absolutely appalled when I went to the site when I saw the fact that I could have stood on the roof of that building the AGR building and hit that Podium with a nineiron and I'm a lousy golfer and the fact that that was not included in the perimeter is a complete dereliction of the duty of the US Secret Service I mean there are very few rooftops that needed to be secured and the fact that secret service as they were putting a site plan in place did not think it was necessary to man those rooftops you have completely walked away from your duties you had one job and that's to protect the future president of United States or to protect all of the other protes and president Trump is only here today by God's grace because he had just something in him that made him turn his head just slightly or we would be in a national period of morning right now and you have done nothing here today I've re written these questions like four times during your hearing and you haven't answered a damn one of them you haven't given any information information you have hidden behind this FBI investigation and I think you should be ashamed of yourself because you have brought more shame to your agency than I think that the assassination attempt has at this point this is literally the worst performance I have ever seen in front of a congressional hearing I you have offered no reason for this committee this body or the American people to trust you or the secret service today and you should resign uh you have said that you've put new security measures in place after the assassination attempt can you tell us what those are because the American people want to know that you're taking real corrective measures but today you've pointed to an investigation investigation or not you still have a job to do with a zero fail Mission but so far there's been absolutely no accountability and you've admitted that here today not one person's been suspended not one person's been put on a desk meanwhile we've got the most contentious of el elections in our nation's history in protectees are in danger because of incompetent leadership not not the agents the agents piled on President Trump to protect his life those are heroes but the administrators running your agency they're not right now they're not doing their jobs and you certainly aren't doing the most appalling part of Saturday's events is the countless opportunities that secret service had to stop Crooks before he even got on the roof at 3:00 Crooks raised suspicion by entering the rally with a rangefinder at 5:45 a cop with a Beaver County Emergency Services Unit saw Crooks eyeballing the roof at the AGR International building and then at 555 Secret Service was warned of a suspicious person and identifies Crooks as a threat this was all before shots were fired 15 minutes later director yes or no did local law enforcement alert the Secret Service about Crook's Presence at the rally yes they did the shooter came to attention of law enforcement almost an hour before President Trump went on stage law enforcement alerted the Secret Service of the shooter over and over youve said there's a difference between a suspicious individual and a threatening individual can you explain what the shooter needed to exemplify to be called a threat so I'm not clear as to what identified him as suspicious to the individuals who uh originally clarified him that way for the Secret Service for an individual to be determined to be a threat that individual would have to be seen uh with a weapon or capable of doing some sort of harm to our protectees I I I mean director an individual walking into a rally with a rangefinder scoping out an unprotected rooftop and he reportedly flew a drone over hours before it sounds like a lot more than suspicious especially at a presidential rally uh your operational lapses your resource management and poor judgment nearly resulted in the assassination of President Trump I mean the D elction of Duty here is is just appalling the fact that you haven't visited Butler uh I is just maddening to me that you you're not taking this job seriously I you know many people here have called for your resignation I've introduced a resolution here into this body that hopefully will get a vote this week calling on the president to fire you ma'am you have not done your job you have put a two black eyes on your agency and you need to go Mr chairman I yield back gentleman yields back chair now recognizes Mr Burleson from Missouri cheel um I just want to kind of get an idea of what you can answer um because outside of what the FBI is responsible for you have full responsibility for the Department of of secret service so the question is what is the mission what is your what's the who and who defines the mission our mission of the Secret Service is to protect uh the president the vice president uh their immediate families uh presidential candidates the former presidents and uh those by executive order and we also have an investigative Mission and and those are well defined yes they everyone within the agency understands the mission yes they do what about protocols and standards who defines the protocols and standards we have a number of protocols and policies in place for uh the various uh missions that we have so would would it be safe to say that you failed the mission the ultimate Mission I have stated repeatedly here today that there was a failure what about specific failures within protocols and and guidelines within the agency again I am uh certain that the investigation that is being conducted internally as well as the external investigation you said you said earlier in the hearing that there was either a communication there was there was a there's errors in communication or in operations could it be both in in both errors in operational decisions and errors in Communications I think the investigation potentially could uh identify both so I want to talk about Communications um representative bobert asked earlier about using encrypted apps that you said you've not used I guess signal um are you have you used any encrypted app to communicate on from your personal device I do on uh use encrypted apps to communicate uh so you use some form of encrypted app to communicate with with people within the federal government with local law enforcement whom whom are you communicating using the encrypted apps uh many times it's with colleagues and uh and Associates so you're communicating with colleagues on a personal device there are times that the Secret Service when we work uh internationally uh with some of our partners that they don't have the same texting capability and you you're not able to do that with your with your government issue device uh recently we have been able to uh install some of those apps on government devices okay um let's talk about some of the things uh that we can get access to I'm actually shocked that you were using your personal device um encrypted communication tools I think that that might be the most shocking thing that I've heard today I didn't expect that you for you to say that um the we have requested this committee has requested multiple documents and this is not you know in under the purview of the FBI this is under your purview we requested a complete list of all law enforcement Personnel including Secret Service Department of Homeland Security local law enforcement with the roles in protecting the president and we request that to be for us to receive that by July 18th did we did you provide that I believe that our agency is in the process of collecting all documents so you did not you have not provide provided it how long does it take to determine who the the Personnel were that were on site we are collecting a comprehensive list of all the documents that have been requested we also requested all the audio and video recordings that your agency not the FBI but your agency has in possession Rel related to the event did we receive those have you provided those at all we are in the process of collecting all documentation requested you're in the process but you have not um any memorandums or any internal Communications related to the to the event you you we requested that you provide that have you provided any of that we are in the process of collecting the information that has been requested okay so when can we expect to receive these documents how long does it take to to to determine who was on site who was who was being employed to be there to protect the pre the former president uh when can we expect that how long how many days does it take to provide that information we want to make sure that we have a comprehensive uh accounting of all of the documents uh that were engaged in that day and we will make them available as soon as possible I think transparency is the key here it's shocking to me that we are communicating in in a um encrypted app to colleagues um I I'm almost certain that violates some federal laws I would like to clarify you didn't ask me whether my communications were uh government work related or whether they were personally related you're communicating with colleages communicate uh government business with colleagues on a personal device I communicate on my work device are you using an encrypted device on your work device I am not no no encrypted apps no I do not not okay thank you Mr chairman chair now recognize Mr Waltz from Florida thank you Mr chairman uh Madame director please I'd like to direct your attention to this video and and I sincerely appreciate the clarity on this um turn up the volume stff I just want to ask you because this has been this has popped up Republican Congressman Mike walls he said on social media on Saturday and I'm going to read this for you because it does talk about you secretary I have very reliable sources telling me that there have been repeated requests for stronger Secret Service protection for president Trump denied by secretary mayoras your department has already pushed back on that calling that absolutely false but he is putting this on you can you respond to that please well that is yeah that's a that's a a baseless and irresponsible statement and is one that is unequivocally false director Cheeto did you speak with your boss uh secretary my orcus you you fall under DHS did you speak with him on the 14th the day after yes I did so you spoke with him before he made that statement I spoke with him uh the immediately follow did incident did you inform him that all requests for additional resources for president Trump had been fulfilled I or or that it was false to say they had been denied I informed him that the request uh for that rally that day had been fulfilled okay you're you continue to answer that very carefully because I made a broader statement the agents that came to me made a broader statement that his permanent protective detail for years now have been asking for more is that correct I do not have specific incidents of those requests is it correct that they've been asking for more I have heard the same reports that you have uh without having them in front of me I am unable those requests are made in writing I mean the agents are telling me they make them in writing this this isn't a verbal agency things are made in writing I understand what you're saying I don't have those requests in front of me here to I'm not asking if you have them in front of you are you aware that they were made as I said earlier there are times when requests are made and depending on the availability of assets or if there is a way that that so there were times when they were denied if there is a way that that uh vulnerability can be mitigated in a different way then that is why the there are times when they were denied for a variety of reasons that is why the secret service has a multi-layered and multifaceted security plan so that we can pivot if we so in the wake I mean in the immediate 48 Hours of an assassination attt on a former president could be the next leader of the Free World almost had his head blown off your boss says that's irresponsible and false to say things are denied and you had talked to him so did he just make that on his own make that up on his own or did you tell him that we were speaking about the requests made at the rally uh staff can we show the next slide please then we have your spokesman did you sign off on this statement that there's an assertion that a member of the former president's team requested a additional security resources and those were reffed this is absolutely false in fact we added Pro protective resources and technology and capability as part of the increased campaign travel Tempo but next slide please next slide please staff we have the Washington Post article that then says we now have senior Secret Service officials saying there were in times at times when it was denied so which is it again there have been a number of conversations going on here did you sign off on that spokesman's statement the spokesman statement I believe was related to requests that were made for did you sign off on it for the requests that were made at the rally did you sign off on the statement before it went out I sign off on my press spokesman statement before they go out I would hope you would in the wake of an assassination attempt yes you did M categorically false that any requests were made you signed off on it thank you for that uh thank you for that Clarity Madam director how many press conferences have you held since the assassination attempt we have put out uh press rele how many press conferences have you held gone to the mic taking questions from the public from the media how many I have not held any how many is your how many has uh secretary mayorcas held I don't zero how many is the FBI held zero how many is the department of Justice held I know you know the answer I believe there was a press conference uh in Butler uh after the incident occurred by local law enforcement not by you and not by the Department of Homeland Security so this is how misinformation flies I mean in the darkness in the absence of information now we have 9 days later before a congressional committee we all represent almost a million people and you still don't have answers are you aware that national news anchors are saying this was a hoax on National Television they're saying no the president wasn't shot it was flying glass are you aware of that I have not heard those reports are you aware that I mean there are rumors rampant online that there were multiple Shooters yes are you aware that because the shooter had overseas encrypted Platforms in Belgium and New Zealand and Germany that a lot of people are speculating there could have been foreign involvement logically are you aware of that yes and did have you done anything to disabuse any of these Notions today no you haven't D Madam director I would fire you regardless of the failure I would fire you just how you've handled it since you should have been the first to the mics to say America world I want to assure you we're going to get to the bottom of this I want to assure you full transparency uh our agency clearly had major gaps here and I want to personally take responsibility and accountability you should have been the first standing alongside secretary secretary my orcus and I would even go so far as to say have daily press conferences updating everyone on what we know but you haven't had any of that what are you hiding behind I am not hiding because you're making the situation worse I think you've heard that on a bipartisan basis here you are making this situation far worse in the absence of information uh let's move on this is truly astounding I want to be clear because you keep dodging the issue has president Trump's permanent protective detail requested additional assets over the last few years he is clearly not your average former president he's not Jimmy Carter in an old folks home he's not President Bush painting uh out in his barn he has multiple residences a lot of rallies he's very publicly engaged and he has a foreign threat in addition of domestic threats have they requested additional resources that's the last question but please feel free to director we have continued as I stated earlier to increase uh over the past year uh the assets that are at the former president's residents and uh supplied to his detail Mr chairman if I could just ask for one more Indulgence it is clear you'd have not been to Butler Pennsylvania leaders lead and should be on the ground you have not been there instead you went to the RNC but you weren't originally even going to go there where were you originally scheduled to go besides the RNC a national special security inent I was always scheduled to go to uh Mr chairman I would like to enter into the record that the director was scheduled to go to Aspen hobnobbing around with I don't I don't know who what liberal Elites go to Aspen that was where you originally scheduled to go speak at a forum I was scheduled to go to the RNC I was going to leave the RNC for 24 hours and return back to the RNC I hope as your predecessor Julie Pearson with a security incident on the White House and under the Obama Administration and Reagan's SEC Secret Service detailed lead I will hope you would have the dignity for the sake of the agents in the service to resign gentlemen's time's expired thank you like to enter a few things into the record uh first of all the remaining articles that Mr Bigs was uh wanting to enter into the record without objection to ordered next I have a written statement from representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania his district uh includes Butler H and uh he has a written statement that we'd like to enter into the record without objection so ordered a bipartisan 114th Congressional report titled United States Secret service and agency in crisis this was prepared by former oversight committee chairman Jason chaitz and former ranking member Elijah cumins and lastly uh the issue subpoenaed compelling director cheo's appearance at today's hearing without objection so ordered that concludes uh our question segment I want to thank the director for your testimony today I now yield to the ranking member for closing remarks Thank you very much Mr chairman um and director Cheeto also want to thank you for your your patience um over the course of what must have been a very long and trying uh uh hearing for you uh it has been an unusually encouraging hearing and an unusually depressing hearing and what's encouraging Mr chairman is that we came together to issue a strong statement deploring and categorically denouncing political violence in America and I also didn't see any daylight between the members of the two parties today at the hearing in terms of our bafflement and outrage about the shocking operational failures that led to disaster and near catastrophe on July 13 2024 uh what is depressing is the extraordinary Communications gap between the director of The Secret Service and Congress um and I don't want to add to the director's uh Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day um but I I will be joining the chairman in uh calling for the resignation of the director just because I think that this relationship is um irretrievable at this point and I think that uh the director has lost the confidence of Congress um at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country and we need to very quickly move Beyond this but what I will say Mr chairman is that I took this hearing to be about two major policy failures and one policy failure is the one that got the vast majority of the attention which was the failure of the Secret Service to um effectively respond to uh a gunman on a roof within uh 150 yards of a presidential visit and speech um but the other failure is on on the part of Congress because the mass shooting that took place in Butler Pennsylvania um is replicated all over the country every day and in fact as I said Mr chairman it happened that evening um in Alabama in Birmingham Alabama where there was a mass shooting where more people even were killed and wounded than were killed and wounded in Butler Pennsylvania so it's true the president the former president the handful of people who get the secret service protection are the only people in America we thought were safe from an AR-15 attack it's clear that they're not safe either and we've got to get to the bottom of that but we also have to get to the bottom of the larger problem which is that the whole country is living like this in fear and in Terror of assault weapon attacks in movie theaters churches synagogues mosques supermarkets Walmarts um you know any place where an audience or a public gathers and um the worst was in Las Vegas where a gunman got up on a roof and then just uh mowed down 60 people uh below him and wounded hundreds and hundreds of other people so we've got to deal with that problem we yes we've got to move as swiftly as we can to deal with the problems of the Secret Service but the broader problem is still there and I just wish to to uh the heavens that our colleagues that could get together on the question of presidential security against an AR-15 attack could get together on the question of public security against an AR-15 attack because all of us are vulnerable all of our families are in danger by this and the rest of the world doesn't live this way and we have to look to see how uniquely strange it is that we allow 20y olds to access AR-15s weapons of mass destruction and show up in public places to endanger other people and I hope Mr chairman we can work together on that with the same Spirit of bipartisan commitment to the public safety that was exemplified here today and I yield back to you uh Rec member y's back uh I'll deliver my closing remarks director cheel I subpoenaed you to appear today to get answers for the American people about the failures that led to the assassination attempt the president Donald J Trump unfortunately you refus to answer today and this committee is not known for uh its bipartisan its model of bipartisanship but I think today we came together unanimously in our disappointment for your lack of answers uh you've stated that the the FBI will investigate and and give a report and you estimate 60 days we've been waiting for months and months for lots of different uh bits of information from the FBI we have no confidence in the FBI the majority of this committee has no confidence in the FBI I sincerely hoped that the hearing today would give not just Congress confidence in the Secret Service but the American people would have confidence in the Secret Service service we don't have confidence not just in Congress but I don't believe the American people tonight when they go to bed are going to have confidence that the Secret Service is is the best it can be at Protecting President Biden at protecting the first lady at Protecting President Trump at protecting their families that's what the primary role for the Secret Service should be and some people have said and speculated well there needs to be more money and more employees as I stated early on 3.1 billion I believe next year it's going to be $3.2 billion budget over $8,000 employees if the Secret Service is spread too thin and doing things like uh inspecting counterfeit which is what the secret service was created to do was to to inspect counterfeit money and things like that with the treasury if it spread too thin then we need to come together in Congress and I think we can do that in a in a bipartisan way to narrow the focus of the Secret Service to protect the leaders of our country to protect our elections by protecting our our candidates and I don't believe we have any confidence that that you can do that as the leader of the FBI I I sincerely hope that we would adjourn this Committee hearing and have confidence not just in in in the Secret Service but in in in you as director of The Secret Service but we but we do not taking responsibility requires a lot of things it means providing transparency uh it means answering simple questions it means providing a specific timeline of July 13th to this committee and the American people I mean it's been nine days there were people that uh were demanding that we have a hearing the the next day or or two days following the the shooting and I said no we need to give the Secret Service ample time to be able to answer those questions nine days nine days and I don't think we answered very many questions that the American people have I don't think there was a qu I've never said this before and I've presided over a lot of hearings I don't think there was one question asked by anyone that that the average American hasn't already asked at a diner or at church or at a ball game the American people have questions they deserve answers Congress deserves answers you were subpoenaed today to provide answers and ma'am you did not do that so as as ranking member asking stated he and I will be sending a letter uh requesting that you submit your resignation as a step toward accountability in uh in what happened and one of the biggest frustrations that many of us have especially on this side of the aisle is that there's never accountability in this Administration and when you look at the at the debacles prior to July 13th I mean it would be hard to beat the withdrawal in Afghanistan the debaca there and no one was held accountable to this day no one has been held accountable for that but here we have clearly video showing people notifying the police and the police are blaming the Secret Service the Secret Service are blaming the police Homeland Security is blaming everybody but at the end of the day after this hearing and after our requests for information we don't have any answers for the American people and we don't have that confidence that you can lead the Secret Service to restore the confidence and again I commend the ranking member for joining with me in in uh the letter asking your resignation and uh we certainly hope that you will take that to heart with that and without objection all members have five legislative days within which to submit materials and additional written questions for the witness which will be be forwarded to the witness if there's no further Business Without objection the committee stands adjourn e [Music]