By Steve Neavling
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle acknowledged her agency’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt on Donald Trump but said she would not step down.
“It was unacceptable,” Cheatle said in an interview on ABC News. “And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also criticized the agency’s response, saying the shooting was a security “failure.”
“An incident like this cannot happen,” Mr. Mayorkas told CNN, adding: “When I say something like this cannot happen, we are speaking of a failure.”
President Biden called for an “independent review” of the security planning for the Trump rally in Pennsylvania.
The Secret Service has faced tough questions, including why it failed to secure a warehouse roof not far from where Trump spoke.
Cheatle said she’s responsible for investigating the security failures.
“The buck stops with me,” she said. “I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary.”
Cheatle also responded to the discovery that rally-goers spotted the gunman before the shooting.
“I don’t have all the details yet, but it was a very short period of time,” she said. “Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult.”
Since the building was outside of the security perimeter, Cheatle said it was up to local authorities to secure the structure.
“In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter,” Cheatle said. “And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”
Members of Congress announced plans Monday to investigate the Secret Service.
Meanwhile, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will receive Secret Service protection following the assassination attempt on Trump, Mayorkas said.
“In light of this weekend’s events, the president has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy Jr, both prior to and after the events of this past weekend,” he said.
