Question Time for Kimberly Cheatle

The Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, will finally present herself on Capitol Hill Monday to be questioned in respect of the assassination attempt on President Trump. She was last seen being pursued through the convention hall at Milwaukee by a group of Republican senators shouting demands for answers. “This was an assassination attempt,” hollered Senator Blackburn. “You owe the people answers.” Herewith some questions compiled by the Sun.Whistleblowers, according to Senator Hawley, allege that the majority of the Department of Homeland security officers at the rally were not Secret Service agents, but rather, pulled from the department’s Homeland Security Investigations team. This hasn’t been widely reported. If true, how could such agents be allowed to protect a presidential candidate? The whistleblowers further claim that the entire event enjoyed “loose” security coverage — in which there were no canines to monitor entry nor proper security buffers placed around the podium. If a former American president speaking before a crowd at an open-air rally is not deserving of strong security coverage, who is? When questioned about why there were no security agents covering the roof of a building no more than 150 yards away from the stage in which Trump stood, Ms. Cheatle responded that the building’s “sloped roof” created safety concerns. How does this stand up to the fact that Secret Service snipers were placed on a similarly sloping roof? Law enforcement at the rally reportedly identified the shooter, holding a device used to help measure the distance to a target, as “suspicious” a full 19 minutes before his first shot was fired. Police also received a call about a “suspicious male” being seen around the time of Trump’s arrival. How could these warning signs have been ignored? While the photos of Trump bleeding from his ear and holding his fist in the air provided will become a historic image, why did the former president’s security detail allow him to remain in the line of fire? “They stayed on that stage for over a minute,” says a former member of the Royal Military Police. “What on Earth were they doing?” Ms. Cheatle told CNN in an interview that the Secret Service agency was “solely responsible” for implementing the necessary security measures to protect the former president. As not only a member but head of the agency, how will Ms. Cheatle hold herself accountable for the Secret Service’s horrifyingly close call? If Ms. Cheatle chooses to remain in her post — despite mounting calls for her to resign, including from several House Republicans — how will she regain the trust, not only of Trump and the other presidential candidates, but of the American people? Particularly as it appears that Iran already has in place an active plot to assassinate Trump? Monday’s hearing marks an important first step in getting to the bottom of the failures that allowed the 45th president to come within centimeters of death. The mistakes also led to the tragic death of a rally-goer, Corey Comperatore, a beloved father and firefighter, and the critical wounding of two others. So we raise a final query: Who will be held to account if not Ms. Cheatle?

Question Time for Kimberly Cheatle

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