Turner calls for Secret Service director to resign or be fired

Jul. 22—During a Monday hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, U.S. House Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton questioned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle over the Secret Service's performance during the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Turner, who chairs the House intelligence committee, was critical of the Secret Service director and at the end of his questioning said Cheatle should resign or President Joe Biden should fire her.

Here are excerpts from that testimony:

Turner: In your opening statement, you indicate that the Secret Service constructed a security plan for the site in Pennsylvania. I'm assuming that security plan would also include the security footprint for the site, but it also would be based upon a threat assessment for the risk threats associated with Donald Trump and the crowd in attendance. Would it not include a threat assessment?

Cheatle: Yes, it would.

Turner: So that threat assessment as we know, basically what it started with is a generalized threat against Donald Trump because he is a presidential candidate, then it would have gone to he's a former president and he gets the same security coverage just as Bush, Clinton, Carter and Obama do. And then you also have the heightened political environment. Even with those, it's clear that the security footprint for the threat assessment was insufficient, which permitted that a 20 year old to actually enter with the weapon and shoot Donald Trump.

Cheatle: Sir, I think we've acknowledged that there was gaps and a failure that day.

Turner also asked Cheatle if she was aware of the Iranian threat again Trump to avenge a strike ordered in 2020 to killed Iranian general.

Cheatle acknowledged that she had been aware of the Iranian threat to the former president, and that she had reviewed the intelligence behind it. She said she thought the security in place at Butler was sufficient to deal with the Iranian threat.

"Director Cheatle, is an Iranian assassin more capable than a 20 year old?" Turner asked sarcastically.