MILWAUKEE, Wis. ― In a remarkable scene at the GOP presidential convention on Wednesday, a group of top Republican senators confronted the head of the Secret Service and demanded more information about the agency’s response to former President Donald Trump’s recent assassination attempt.
When Director Kimberly Cheatle declined to answer questions in the halls of an arena, packed with thousands of RNC delegates, they chased her and peppered her with questions.
“You owe the people answers! You owe President Trump answers!” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), the chair of the RNC platform committee, told Cheatle. The Secret Service chief retreated away from the convention floor.
Blackburn posted video of the exchange to X, formerly Twitter:
The Secret Service is facing growing scrutiny about its worst security failure since the 1981 attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. A shooter was able to climb on a rooftop a little more than 150 yards from Trump at his Saturday rally and fire off a series of bullets, grazing the former president in the ear. Secret Service agents immediately rushed the stage to shield Trump from further harm.
President Joe Biden has called for a review of the agency’s actions after the attack, which left an audience member behind Trump dead and two others injured.
Senators received a briefing from the heads of the Secret Service and the FBI earlier on Wednesday, but many left unsatisfied, complaining about not being able to ask enough questions.
Republicans have called on Cheatle to step down or be fired since the incident, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).