GOP Rep. William Timmons from South Carolina questioned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday regarding reports that the Pittsburgh Secret Service field office deployed four times as many additional agents to cover a First Lady Jill Biden event as they did for former President Donald Trump’s rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was shot.
Cheatle neither confirmed nor denied the reports.
The event at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, where Biden spoke to approximately 300 people, occurred around the same time as Trump’s rally, which was attended by several thousand, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune.
Timmons opened his questioning by asking Cheatle whether she agreed that Secret Service resources assigned to specific events should align with their respective risk profiles.
The director agreed.
“And when two events occur at the same time and the same geographic vicinity that the risk profile of each event should be taken into account, and whichever event is greater risk should receive greater resources?” the congressman continued.
“That is correct,” Cheatle replied.
The lawmaker than contrasted Trump’s outdoor rally, when he has been under specific threats from Iran, to Biden’s indoor event.
We are asking Secret Service Director Cheatle a lot of straight questions and not getting any straight answers.
The former and future President was shot. There were multiple injuries. Someone was killed.
Director Cheatle called the resources that day "sufficient."
Director… pic.twitter.com/0AurV0qNnn
— Congressman William Timmons (@RepTimmons) July 22, 2024
“President Trump is the former president and the future president, so I would say that that is a fairly high risk event. Would you agree?” Timmons asked.
“Yes,” Cheatle replied.
“There’s a huge disparity relative to risk. Would you agree?” the congressman continued.
The director hesitated a moment and then answered, “Yes.”
“Multiple whistleblowers and various media outlets have reported that the Pittsburgh field office of the Secret Service allocated 12 additional post standers to the first lady’s event and three additional post standers to the Trump rally. Is that correct?” Timmons asked.
The director insisted that there was no transfer of resources from the Trump rally to Biden’s event.
However, Timmons interrupted, stressing that his question was regarding the deployment of extra agents at the events, specifically mentioning the 12 to three ratio.
Cheatle did not address this question.
“The number of personnel that were allocated to both of those events were comparable to the risk at both of those events,” she asserted.
Timmons then noted that Trump was shot, along with multiple rally attendees. One, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, was killed.
The congressman suggested if nine more Secret Service agents had been on hand, it could have been a very different day.
“There were significantly more assets and resources available at the former president’s event than there were at the first lady’s event,” Cheatle said.
“Who made the decision to deploy 12 post standers to the casino, where the first lady was having a 400 person dinner, and only three people from the Pittsburgh field office to the 20,000 person-plus Trump rally?” Timmons asked.
Cheatle only said, “The allocation of resources is decided based on the availability of personnel and their location and where they are, but there were sufficient resources that were given to the former president’s event that day.”
Timmons appeared surprised by her response.
“Did you just say there were sufficient resources?” he questioned. “President Trump got shot. Someone got killed. There were not sufficient resources, clearly.”
“There was a gap,” Cheatle said.
Timmons concluded that the person who decided to send more resources to the Biden event over Trump’s needs to be fired — and Cheatle herself should resign.
“You’ve lost the trust of the American people,” he said.
She resigned just one day after the tumultuous committee hearing.
With all of the newfound evidence that Crooks did NOT act alone, one can’t help but wonder…were the Biden’s or Secret Service directly involved in the attempted assassination of President Trump?
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