President Joe Biden has just fired himself from the 2024 presidential campaign, but he can’t bring himself to let go the U.S. Secret Service chief whose agency allowed a would-be assassin to climb up onto a sloped roof and nearly take out the GOP’s presidential candidate.
Now, the first House Democrat has called on Kimberly Cheatle to resign amid revelations of more Secret Service failures leading up to and during the attack on former President Donald Trump and others at the July 13 campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told The Federalist that the embattled Secret Service director hadn’t failed by the Biden administration’s standards.
“She did exactly what departments and agencies under Joe Biden are supposed to do, focus more on diversity, equity, and inclusion than the mission of their departments and agencies,” Johnson said in a phone interview with The Federalist Sunday afternoon. “That’s why we have guys wearing dresses and stealing women’s luggage in airports so they can get a new wardrobe.”
Damning Evidence
On Sunday, Johnson, the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, released preliminary findings about last weekend’s assassination attempt. He said his office — immediately after the shootings that wounded Trump and two others and killed another — began reaching out to federal, state, and local government entities and private companies “seeking information about the security failures at the rally.”
Johnson said his office is sharing the findings thus far in the spirit of transparency and to ensure the various investigators looking into the assassination attempt are privy to the information. The report finds:
Secret Service did not attend a security briefing provided to local special weapons and tactics (SWAT) and sniper teams the morning of July 13, 2024;
Local law enforcement said communications were siloed and they were not in frequent radio contact directly with Secret Service;
Local law enforcement notified command about [shooter Thomas Matthew] Crooks prior to the shooting and received confirmation that Secret Service was aware of the notification;
Following the shooting Secret Service was seen on the roof of the American Glass Research (AGR) building with local law enforcement; photos of the shooter were sent to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) for facial recognition; and
Secret Service was initially not going to send snipers to the rally, according to local law enforcement.
Johnson urged “anyone with relevant information on the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt or the alleged shooter” to contact his office.
Johnson has demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray preserve “records, information relating to the security of the Butler rally, background information on the alleged gunman, and all texts and communications between law enforcement agents, including Secret Service personnel, relating to the rally from July 11, 2024 to July 14, 2024.”
As of Sunday, Johnson said the agencies have failed to turn over the requested information, and have given him no assurances that they will preserve the relevant records.
The senator blasted their “continued lack [of] transparency” after an “unbelievably uninformative” meeting on Wednesday with the Secret Service.
Cheatle is expected to testify on Monday before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chairman of the committee, has issued a subpoena for Cheatle to appear.
“She’s subpoenaed, and I would say if she does not show up, we bring her in — by force if necessary,” U.S. Rep. Burchett, R-Tenn., a member of the Oversight Committee, told The Federalist last week.
DEI ‘Every Day’ at Secret Service
Republicans have raised concerns that Biden’s sweeping DEI initiatives have raised unqualified individuals into positions of authority in his administration, with dangerous consequences. The left and their public relations firm in the accomplice media have denounced such claims related to Cheatle as “misogynistic.”
But Biden’s Secret Service chief, a longtime pal of first lady Jill Biden, has carried out the administration’s DEI orders through a 2023-27 strategic plan “focused on achieving excellence through talent, technology and diversity,” documents reviewed by the New York Post show.
“We must embrace diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) across the agency,” wrote Cheatle. “DEIA must be demonstrated by all employees — leading by example — through ‘every action every day.’”
‘Calling on Director Cheatle to Resign’
U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Penn., on Sunday became the first Democrat member of Congress to call for Cheatle’s resignation amid confirmation that the U.S. Secret Service for two years rejected Trump’s requests for more security. (The Federalist’s Sean Davis reported last week that Trump’s requests for more protection had been rebuffed.)
“I am calling on Director Cheatle to resign immediately following last weekend’s shooting of a Presidential candidate in Western Pennsylvania,” Boyle said in a statement on his X account.
Take Boyle’s statement for what it’s worth. He also called Biden a “patriot” for leaving the presidential race and “selflessly” putting “personal ambition aside to do what he thinks is best for our country.”
Despite the increasingly alarming details about the Secret Service’s lapses in protecting Trump and the Butler, Pennsylvania rallygoers, Biden just can’t bring himself to fire the DEI-pushing agency’s director — nor has Cheatle signaled any willingness to step down.
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
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