By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and FARNOUSH AMIRI
WASHINGTON — The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump was the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades, Director Kimberly Cheatle told lawmakers Monday as calls mounted for her to resign.
In the first congressional hearing over the shooting at a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month, Cheatle said she took “fully responsibility” for the security lapses, and she vowed to “move heaven and earth” to make sure there’s no repeat of it.
“I accept responsibility for this tragedy,” Cheatle said. “We are going to look into how this happened, and we are going to take corrective action to ensure that it never happens again.”
Lawmakers have been expressing anger over how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded. Trump was wounded in the ear, and two other attendees were injured after Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed atop the roof of a nearby building and opened fire.
The Secret Service has acknowledged it denied some requests by Trump’s campaign for increased security at his events in the years before the assassination attempt.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has called what happened a “failure” while several lawmakers have called on Cheatle to resign or for President Joe Biden to fire her. The Secret Service has said Cheatle does not intend to step down. So far, she retains the support of Biden, a Democrat, and Mayorkas.
Before the shooting, local law enforcement had noticed Crooks pacing around the edges of the rally, peering into the lens of a rangefinder toward the rooftops behind the stage where the president later stood, officials have told The Associated Press. An image of Crooks was circulated by officers stationed outside the security perimeter.
Witnesses later saw him climbing up the side of a squat manufacturing building that was within 135 meters (157 yards) from the stage. He then set up his AR-style rifle and lay on the rooftop, a detonator in his pocket to set off crude explosive devices that were stashed in his car parked nearby.
The attack on Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It was the latest in a series of security lapses by the agency that has drawn investigations and public scrutiny over the years.
Authorities have been hunting for clues into what motivated Crooks, but so far have not found any ideological bent that could help explain his actions. Investigators who searched his phone found photos of Trump, Biden and other senior government officials, and also found that he had looked up the dates for the Democratic National Conventional as well as Trump’s appearances. He also searched for information about major depressive order.
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