US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, on Monday, acknowledged that she and her agency failed when a would-be assassin wounded Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13.
"We failed. As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse," Cheatle, who faces Republican calls for her removal, said in testimony before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee.
In the face of Republican claims that the Secret Service denied resources to protect Trump, she said security for the former president had grown ahead of the shooting. "The level of security provided for the former president increased well before the campaign and has been steadily increasing as threats evolve," Cheatle said. "Our mission is not political. It is literally a matter of life and death."
The Secret Service director testified before a congressional committee after calls mounted for her to resign over security failures at a rally where a 20-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate former President. The House Oversight Committee hearing was Cheatle’s first appearance before lawmakers since the July 13 Pennsylvania rally shooting that left one spectator dead.
Lawmakers have been expressing anger over how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded.
Earlier on Sunday, an official had acknowledged that the agency denied some requests by the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign for increased security at his events in the years before the assassination attempt on him at a recent rally.
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