The Biden administration has intervened to prevent the Secret Service from briefing a House committee investigating the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, a member of the committee told Family Research Council.
“After the Secret Service agreed to brief members of the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security took over communications with the committee and has since refused to confirm a briefing time,” said a statement from the Oversight Committee emailed to FRC from Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.. “The Oversight Committee has a long record of bipartisan oversight of the Secret Service, and the unprofessionalism we are witnessing from the current DHS leadership is unacceptable.”
“We were scheduled for a first briefing today,” confirmed Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, but “DHS has stepped in between the communications now of the Secret Service and the Oversight Committee, and are now trying to control the communication between the two committees.”
“Already they’re obfuscating, it would seem,” said Cloud.
The briefing to the House Oversight Committee would precede a full committee hearing on the Trump assassination attempt with the director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, next Monday, July 22, at 10 a.m. Cloud noted that Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has issued subpoenas to assure Cheatle shows up.
At least three congressional committees are now investigating the near-fatal shooting in Butler, Pa. last Saturday. In addition to the House Oversight Committee hearing, Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, announced the House Judiciary Committee plans to question FBI Director Christopher Wray next Wednesday. And the House Committee on Homeland Security, led by Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., will interview the leaders of the DHS, FBI, and Secret Service.
“The United States Secret Service has a no-fail mission, yet it failed on Saturday when a madman attempted to assassinate President Trump, killed an innocent victim, and harmed others. … [Q]uestions remain about how a rooftop within proximity to President Trump was left unsecure,” said Comer. “Americans demand answers from Director Kimberly Cheatle about these security lapses and how we can prevent this from happening again.”
Several questions hang over the Secret Service’s handling of the near-fatal shooting by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fired eight shots from the top of the AGR International Inc. factory.
Tim Miller, a former Secret Service agent and founder of Lionheart International Services Group, told FRC President Tony Perkins, “One of the first things you start with as a site agent, and we learned this in November of 1963,” is to ask, “‘Where are the high places where someone with a rifle could shoot and kill the president?’”
“Unfortunately, the biggest thing that we look at from day one was missed,” said Miller.
Cheatle admitted she placed agents inside the building from which the shooter staged his attempted murder instead of on top of it, because the structure had a sloped roof. Apparently, the Secret Service inside the building could not hear the shooter climbing the side of the business and walking on the roof above them.
Numerous eyewitnesses alerted law enforcement to the presence of a man on the roof with a rifle.
A policeman from the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit took a picture of Crooks and called in a suspicious presence at 5:45 p.m., 28 minutes before the shooting, according to local reporter Nicole Ford of WPXI.
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., told CNN Tuesday morning that the Secret Service’s serial failures were so amateurish that authorities must investigate whether they were “intentional” or merely incompetence. “The amount of negligence, the amount of mistakes that were made here, I have a very difficult time not leading myself towards [thinking] this was intentional instead of fecklessness.” He called for Congress to establish a “J-13 commission,” apparently similar to the Jan. 6 committee.
“These are not difficult advances,” said Mills, a former military sniper. “This is not a political thing,” he said. The American people need “a proper investigation on all levels to ensure this doesn’t happen again and our president can be safe.”
“I’ve been making my own calls to Secret Service agents that I know that are willing to talk to me off the record. And there are a lot of severe problems,” revealed Biggs on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Tuesday. “I would like to find out who is the lead agent who got there and ran the advance. I want to see what the agent asked for as far as material, manpower, etc., and whether he was denied some of that. The other thing I would like to know is where [were] the counter snipers? Were they green-lighted, or were they told that they were going to have to hold? And if they were told they were going to have to hold, I want to know who the supervisor was who made the determination to hold. And when they saw the actual shooter.”
Like many others, Biggs blamed a politically correct culture focused on “equity” rather than quality in hiring Secret Service agents.
“Cheatle has put a focus on DEI,” said Biggs. Cheatle announced she aimed to assure that 30% of Secret Service agents are female by 2030. In 2021, more women than men graduated from the service’s training classes. “This is all about DEI,” said Biggs. He charged Cheatle with laying aside “merit-based hirings” and becoming “willing to take anybody that she thinks” meets “her diversity goals.”
“That’s not the way their mission is designed,” said Biggs. “The DEI hires are so bad.”
Several female Secret Service agents appeared unable to cover Trump’s head on Saturday evening or even to holster their pistols safely.
Miller said, due to the director’s laser-like focus on DEI—which the Biden-Harris administration has made a whole-of-government undertaking—members of preferred classes “are not being evaluated” thoroughly before being hired. “They’re actually saying, ‘Oh, well, you’re this particular group, so come on in.’ And I think that will compromise the mission.”
“There are a lot of problems and challenges,” said Miller. “And it starts with saying, ‘We’re not going to hire the brightest and the best. We’re only going to hire’” members of specified demographic groups.
These groups tend to vote overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party.
The Biden administration doubled down on its decision to elevate accidents of birth in the hiring process. “Our strength comes from our diversity,” stated Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi.
The Biden administration has strongly supported Cheatle, who spent 27 years in the Secret Service, including several years on then-Vice President Joe Biden’s security detail, insisting her leadership is not to blame. “I have 100% confidence in the director of the United States Secret Service, a dedicated, career-long law enforcement officer,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told NPR.
But Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said he posed probing questions to Mayorkas “within hours” of the shooting. “He didn’t have a lot of those answers,” said Johnson, who called the impeached secretary’s responses “concerning.”
Trump’s security team transformed dramatically between his shooting and the moment he entered the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. On Monday evening, Trump strode into the Fiserv Forum to the strains of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” flanked by at least 10 male Secret Service agents and one female.
Critics say the Biden administration has a history of treating the American people as enemies, unworthy of knowing the inner workings of their own government. “This is coming from the same administration who was labeling Catholics as terrorists, people who go to school board meetings as terrorists, yet they fail to protect a former president of the United States and a political opponent. We’ve seen this administration target political opponents before,” said Cloud.
A Senate committee is set to receive a briefing on Wednesday. “It’ll be just the tip of the iceberg,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told “Mornings with Maria” Wednesday morning.
Next Monday’s House Oversight Committee hearing will be livestreamed on the committee’s website, oversight.house.gov.
Biggs acknowledged the heroism and how “the first agent hops up on that podium right away [and] doesn’t look towards where the shot came from. He’s going in to provide cover,” he recounted, even at the potential cost of his life. Comer also saluted “the brave Secret Service members who put their lives at risk to protect President Trump and for the American patriots in the audience who helped innocent victims.”
“There was good, bad, and ugly in this incident with Donald Trump,” said Biggs.
But the bad and the ugly leave disturbing questions House Republicans promise to investigate until the end.
“What we saw play out on Saturday night is the greatest indicator that we have a problem that we are refusing to look in the eye and deal with,” said Miller, “and that’s going to lead to nothing but danger and destruction down the road.”
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand
Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal – By Ben Johnson
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Did anyone think the Biden administration was actually going to do a serious investigation of how they so thoroughly weaponized the entire executive branch to create the outcome that occurred on Saturday? Does anyone think Mayorkas, who lies openly to Congress about the border and everything else with impunity, is going to do anything but stonewall on this as well? If you do think you’re going to see actual full cooperation between DHS and Congress on this, then I have some great beach front property to sell you in the Sahara desert.
The whole thing stinks to High Heaven! A 20 year old with no media footprint. Did he also borrow the “rangefinder” from his dad when he borrowed the gun? How did he instinctively know which building was not being covered? Anyone knows who has ever been inside one of these prefab buildings knows that you can hear a bird land on the roof, let alone a person crawling around up there. The thing about the pitch of the roof is just 100% pure BS. I agree that Trump needs his own security force. I would not trust these people any further than I could pick one up and throw him/her. I have been thinking that ever since he decided to run again. Will they attempt to harm Trump again? That is the $64 Trillion Dollar Question; and, I, for one, demand an answer!
Biden won’t give Kennedy any protection and he won’t give clearance to look into the attempted assassination of Trump. Biden has got to be a one of the worst presidents we have ever had. He is a heartless,murderous POS.
It is quite obvious that having known the shooter was there for over 20 minutes and did nothing that their intentions were to let President Trump be harmed. While they may have been hesitant to eliminate the shooter before knowing what he was up to protocol would be to have immediately gotten the President under cover. Failure to do that shows intentional failure. We no longer can trust the secret service and our President should have his own security people with full government clearance and support.
I didn’t read the whole article. There is no need to. Joes administration are stalling to cover up their tracks. Just goes to show you that they had a hand in this
This event had a planned event written all over it. I’m sure Biden will do everything in his dictator like power to silence anyone getting in the way. We need to wise up America this bunch of criminals have taken over our government and continues to act more like Russia and China then my country.
Was the intent to kill or to make a statement or to scare Trump out of the game The shooter is a man of mystery motive supposedly unknown Something like Vegas shooter That investigation ended quickly Not a thing discovered A complete mystery Here too Every one was doing their job and no one knows nothing about nothing like in Benghazi This shameless denying and lying and getting away with it sums up the state of rottenness we are in There is not one branch that is not corrupt This also demonstrates that to hire people for other reasons than the ability and competence is fatal Dems are determined to win no matter the cost The gloves are off
Weaponized government! (Democrats)
*** Trying to destroy Trump in every possible way imaginable over the 4 years he was in the white house!
*** 2 failed impeachments, 1 in office, 1 out of office!
*** A heavily armed FBI raid on his home and personal property!
*** 4 bogus indictments attempting to imprison him!
*** 1 failed assassination attempt!
I’ll leave the thoughts about all of this to logical and rational thinking people.
No surprise Dictator Beijing biden Stonewalling investigation since it’s all on him and the democrats because of assassination attempt on President Trump. Both Dictator Beijing biden and democrats cut Secret Service protection for President Trump at a minimal and want to cut protection entirely for President Trump. All other former presidents have FULL PROTECTION. This is intentional by Dictator Beijing biden and democrats. Shows they will do anything to stay in power and control.
Even allow an assassination attempt on the Number One political opponent.
Of course, like the Epstein client list, it has to be scrubbed before anyone can see it.
well I guess our suspicions of who was behind it have been confirmed! The left gets away with everything! And they claim Trump is a felon? – only because they make up crimes from nothing then get a democratic judge and jury.
She should be fired and arrested!
I agree, Trump should pick and hire his own Secret Service since he can’t trust the ones that do the choosing. Cheadle needs to resign. I want to know why CNN, MSNBC, FOX and other channels broadcasted the Rally last Saturday? It’s usually just NewsMax that does. So ? WHY? Did they know something? As far as this changing the mean things said like Rachael Parrot calling our RNC a Hitler Conference, and the cold hearted comments that media tells viewers on those channels. It hasn’t tamed down at all, and I am sure it won’t. Watched VP Harris Wednesday, and she made a comment about the shooting…
It was anounced to the FBI and Secret Service 3 to 4 hours before the rally that Crook was a threat, nothing done, seen roaming around the grounds 1 and a half hours before the rally, nothing done. Was it a set-up from the word go, Maybe? Think why Mayorkas and Cheatle are stone walling.
The secret service has something to hide. The failed assassination is an inside job. Crooks was just a disposable pawn. He was killed by agents to cover their crimes. Heads must roll!
American pastime, why don’t you grow a pair and post your address?J.Gerst dead on your are a clear thinking American not a deadbeat special interest member like ” American’t pastime
Biggs: “But the bad and the ugly leave disturbing questions House Republicans promise to investigate until the end.” And hold no one let alone the planners of this banana republic assassination attempt accountable, because that what Republicans do.