UPDATE - 'We failed': Secret Service chief calls attack on Trump 'most significant operational failure'

ADDS MORE FROM HEARING

By Servet Gunerigok

WASHINGTON (AA) - The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was "the most significant operational failure" of Secret Service, said its Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday.

"The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13 is the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades, and I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts," Cheatle said during a House Oversight Committee hearing.

Stating that the agency's mission is to protect the US leaders, Cheatle added: "On the 13th, we failed. As a director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency."

She pledged to "move heaven and earth to ensure" that an incident like the Trump attempted assassination does not happen again.

During his opening remarks, James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, demanded resignation of Cheatle.

"However, in complete defiance, Director Cheatle 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," said Comer.

Comer also called the assassination attempt as "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 are Republicans or Democrats, we are Americans if we play political affiliations above our duty and love of country," said Comer.

Trump was attacked on July 13 at his campaign rally in Butler County in the state of Pennsylvania while addressing supporters. One person was killed and two injured. The Secret Service announced that the assailant was “neutralized” at the scene.

The FBI classified the attack as an assassination attempt and identified the perpetrator who was killed at the scene as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

- Secret Service scrutiny

Cheatle was grilled multiple times by House lawmakers regarding the timeline of the shooting during the hearing, and faced calls from several members to step down from her office.

At one point, she was asked about footage and reports that showed the shooter climbing onto the roof before the attack.

"We are still combing through communications and when communications were passed," Cheatle said. "I don’t know all of the communications".

The director also said the initial investigation of the agency into the assassination attempt will be completed in two months and no employee from the agency has been disciplined for their role in Bulter.

Representative Andy Biggs, a Republican, was among the lawmakers demanding Cheatle resign. "You should have come today, ready to give us answers... I call on you to resign today. Today," said Biggs.

However, she brushed away the calls, saying: "I think I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time".

Representative Jamie Raskin, a ranking member of the Committee, pressed Cheatle regarding information about the presence of a "suspicious" person in the crowd and why was Trump allowed to take the stage.

"If the detail had been passed information that there was threat, the detail would never have brought the former president out onto stage," she said.

She said the agency was informed about a suspicious individual "somewhere between two and five times" on the day of the attempted assassination.

"I don’t have an exact number to share with you today, but from what I have been able to discern, somewhere between two and five times there was some sort of communication about a suspicious individual" to the agency, Cheatle said.