‘Full of sh*t’: Secret Service blasted over Donald Trump shooting

Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle was grilled by Congress after admitting the attempted assassination of Donald Trump was ‘the most significant operational failure’ in decades.

The Secret Service was warned up to five times of a “suspicious individual” but only identified the shooter as a threat “seconds” before the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, according to agency director Kimberly Cheatle.

Testifying before US Congress’s House Oversight Committee, Cheatle refused to resign despite taking responsibility for the Secret Service’s most “significant operational failure” in decades.

“From what I’ve been able to discern, somewhere between two and five times, there was some sort of communication about a suspicious individual,” Cheatle said.

United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is sworn in before testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Picture: AFP

When asked why the rally wasn’t paused after the first report, Cheatle said she was “not clear on the timeline” of when agents were notified.

“If the detail had been passed information that there was a threat, the detail would never have brought the former president out onto stage,” Cheatle said.

Donald Trump is rushed off stage by Secret Service agents. Picture: EPA/DAVID MAXWELL

“I have to assume that they did not know that there was a threat when they brought the president out on the stage,” she added later.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, opened fire on Trump with an AR-style assault rifle just minutes after Trump took the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Cheatle said in follow-up questioning that Crooks was only identified as a threat just moments before he shot Trump in the ear.

GOP Rep. Russell Fry said the suspicious individual, Crooks, was not phrased as a threat but rather “just that something was being worked on”.

“When did he transform from suspicion to threat?” Fry asked.

“I believe that it was seconds before the gunfire started,” Cheatle said.

Cheatle could not confirm whether anyone confronted Crooks in the hour before he opened fire.

“To my knowledge, I believe that that was the process that was taking place, was to locate the individual,” Cheatle said.

She refused to reveal if the gun Crooks used in the attack was on the roof, or if he carried it up himself before opening fire on Trump. But she confirmed that he was acting alone.

“At this time, we do not have that there were any other people engaged,” she said.

In one remarkable exchange during the testimony, representative Nancy Mace called Cheatle “full of sh*t” after the director repeatedly refused to answer basic questions or confirm whether all audio and video of the shooting had been handed to the Committee.

“You’re just being completely dishonest,” Mace said. “These are important questions that the American people want answers to, and you’re just dodging and talking around it in generalities.”

Cheatle began her testimony by taking “full responsibility” for the failure while refusing to resign, adding that there will be “accountability” when the investigation is completed in up to 60 days.

Investigators have concluded that Crooks, who lived in a town about 50 miles (80 kilometres) from Butler, acted alone and have not been able to identify any strong ideological or political leanings.

Two rally attendees were seriously wounded and a 50-year-old firefighter, Corey Comperatore, of Freeport, Pennsylvania, was shot dead.

Republican committee chairman James Comer said the “tragedy was preventable”.

“The Secret Service’s protective mission is to protect US and visiting world leaders and safeguard US elections through protection of candidates and nominees,” Comer said.

“The Secret Service has a zero-fail mission, but it failed on July 13 and in the days leading up to the rally,” he continued, adding the agency “has now become the face of incompetence.”

Originally published as ‘Full of sh*t’: Secret Service blasted over Donald Trump shooting