Secret Service had already been under investigation for several months when a bullet came within inches of killing former President Trump.
The Secret Service had already been under investigation by House Oversight Committee Republicans for several months when a bullet came within inches of killing former President Trump, killed a bystander, and injured at least two others at a rally in Pennsylvania Saturday afternoon.
Even though Trump and his family members credited the special agents and a counter sniper assigned to his protective detail with saving his life and possibly many others, recriminations against the Secret Service started almost immediately after the assassination attempt.
Americans could see for themselves how the agents and officers traveling with Trump on Saturday acted heroically, falling on the former president after his right ear was pierced by a bullet and returning heavy caliber gunfire, killing the 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Crooks. But questions remain over how Crooks managed to perch on a nearby rooftop and come within inches of killing Trump, renewing past criticisms of the once-vaunted agency with a troubled history of security lapses, employee misconduct, and uneven discipline practices.
Rep. James Comer, who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, has called on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a hearing on Monday, July 22.
“Americans demand answers about the assassination attempt of President Trump,” Comer tweeted Saturday night.
In a letter to Cheatle, Comer was far more laudatory of the agency’s actions.
“The tremendous bravery of the individual United States Secret Service agents who protected President Trump[,] eliminated the gunman, and possibly averted more loss of life cannot be overstated,” he said.
In late May, as RealClearPolitics first reported, Comer’s committee had launched an investigation into a previous incident that took place in April involving a female Secret Service agent, tasked with protecting Vice President Kamala Harris, who was removed from her duties after suffering an apparent mental breakdown and attacking superior agents.
The incident took place just before Harris was set to depart Joint Base Andrews, the home base for Air Force One and Air Force Two, the call signs of the Boeing aircraft used by the president and vice president. (Harris had not arrived at the airport when the altercation took place.)
After Saturday’s attempted assassination, when live images of Trump clutching a bloody ear and raising his fist in defiance appeared on cable news and social media, critics began to question why Secret Service snipers didn’t fire sooner amid reports that onlookers were pointing to Crooks, who was positioned and crawling on a nearby roof, before the shots rang out.
A source within the Secret Service community tells RCP that the agency’s rules of engagement in this situation are to wait until the president is fired upon to return fire.
