Cheatle says Secret Service 'prefers sterile rooftops' to sloped roofs

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle offered a bizarre excuse for why there had not been an agent on the rooftop where a gunman fired shots at former President Donald Trump.

The director explained it's because the agency generally 'prefers sterile rooftops.'

She made the stunning admission during a heated hearing before the House Oversight Committee, just nine days since Trump was shot onstage at a rally in Bulter, Pennsylvania.

Chairman James Comer opened the hearing demanding to Cheatle's face that she be 'fired' following the near-assassination attempt.

Trump narrowly dodged a bullet to the head shot by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks on July 13 on the roof of a nearby building, just 400 feet away.

Comer said a 'huge question that every American has' is why there wasn't a Secret Service agent on the roof.

'When we are providing 'overwatch' whether that be through counter snipers or other technology, [we] prefer to have sterile rooftops,' Cheatle said.

Cheatle had initially tried not to answer whether there had been any agent on the roof that day and whether law enforcement had used drones that day to survey the scene, to the groans of committee members.

She later admitted the FBI had informed Secret Service that the shooter had flown a drone on the day of the shooting.

Cheatle could not tell lawmakers how the shooter had gotten onto the roof - and would not reveal how many shots he had fired. 

'A huge question that every American has is why wasn't a Secret Service agent on the roof and there have been reports that agents were supposed to be on the roof but it was hot that day and they didn't want to be on the roof. Can you answer anyone's questions director?' Oversight Committee Chair James Comer asked the director. 

'When we are providing Overwatch whether that be through counter snipers, or other technology prefer to have sterile rooftops,' Cheatle said.   

She later admitted the FBI had informed Secret Service that the shooter had flown a drone on the day of the shooting. 

At the time of the shooting, law enforcement agents were inside the building, 147 yards away from where Trump stood, but not on top of it.

Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, asked if any employees had been 'disciplined' in the nine days since the shooting. 

'No, sir, not at this time,' Cheatle said.  

She was forced to address accusations that the Trump team had requested more security before the shooting and those requests had been denied. 

'For the event in Butler, there were no requests that were denied,' Cheatle said. 

But when pressed further by Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan whether the Trump team had 'asked for additional help in some form or another and you told them no how many times,' Cheatle said: 'I cannot speak to specific incidents but I can tell you in general terms, the Secret Service is judicious with their resources.' 

She said that shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks had been deemed 'suspicious' but not 'threatening' ahead of when Trump took the stage. 

'What I can say is that the individual was identified as suspicious. So he was known to be suspicious before former President Trump took the stage. That is the information I've received,' Cheatle said. 

'Why was he allowed to take the stage with a suspicious person having been identified?' she was asked. 

'If the detail had been passed information that there was a threat. The detail would never have brought the former president out onto stage that is what we do and that who we are we are charged with protecting all of our protect ease,' Cheatle said. 

'There are a number of times at protective events where suspicious people are identified, and those individuals have to be investigated and determined.' 

Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, asked Cheatle whether she had read reports about an Iranian plot to assassinate the president prior to the shooting and whether she believed the Secret Service response was enough to counter that threat. 

'Yes, I do believe it was,' she said. 

'Director Cheatle, because Donald Trump is alive, and thank God he is, you look incompetent. If Donald Trump had been killed, you would have looked culpable,' Turner said. 

'Biden needs to fire you because his life, Donald Trump's life, and all the other people which you protect are at risk because you have no concept of the aspect that the security footprint needs to be correlated to the threat.' 

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., asked Cheatle whether she thinks she is the 'best person to lead the Secret Service.' 

'I think I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.' 

Cheatle leads the agency with a $3.1 billion budget and 9,000 agents under her.  

Under questioning from Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., Cheatle admitted the shooter had used a range finder and this was 'not a prohibited item' at events under Secret Service protection. 

Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, asked whether there are 'different standards for different people' applying to the Secret Service - a reference to right-wing claims the security breach was the result of DEI measures.   

'Everyone who moves through the application process has to meet the same standards to become a special agent,' Cheatle insisted. 

Cheatle curiously claimed no officers had been placed on the roof because it was sloped. 

'That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there's a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn't want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,' she told ABC News in an interview Tuesday.

'And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.' 

The agency head  took full responsibility for the shooting - and offered condolences to those who had been injured and killed in the shooting. She called the assassination attempt the 'most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.'

'The Secret Service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. On July 13th, we failed,' the director told lawmakers. 

'As the Director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse.' 

'Nothing I have said should be interpreted to place blame for this failure on our federal, state or local law enforcement partners who supported the Secret Service.' 

But she's expected the admit the Secret Service still has few answers about what happened. The agency 'must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure an incident like July 13th does not happen again. Thinking about what we should have done differently is never far from my thoughts.' 

'The Secret Service has thousands of employees and a significant budget, but it has now become the face of incompetence,' Comer said at the hearing. 'The Secret Service has a zero-fail mission, but it failed.' 

'No one has yet been fired for this historic failure.'  

'Under Director Cheatle's leadership we question whether anyone is safe, not President Biden, not the First Lady, not the White House, not presidential candidates,' Comer went on. 

Top Oversight Democrat Jamie Raskin compared the Trump assassination attempt to other acts of political violence, including January 6 and the baseball shooting of Majority Leader Steve Scalise. 

He also blamed gun laws. 'The Butler attack was not even the deadliest mass shooting in America on that day.' 

'Even young people not old enough to buy a beer legally can purchase and own AR-15 style weapons.' 

As the hearing went on, Democrats grew just as frustrated with the Secret Service director as Republicans. 

'You cannot go leading a Secret Service agency when there is an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate!' Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told the director. 

'I believe, Director Cheatle, that you should resign. I think there are colleagues on both sides of the aisle that believe that and I hope you'll consider it.'

'Do you really believe that the majority of this country has confidence in you right now?' Khanna asked. 

'I believe that the country deserves answers and I am committed to finding those answers and providing those answers.'  

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.,, asked whether the Secret Service had ever considered pausing the rally. 

'I can speak to you in generalities—' Cheatle said, '—I don't want generalities I want specifics!' Krishnamoorthi cut in. 

'The people that are in charge of protecting the president on that day would never bring the former president out if there was a threat that had been identified.'

'Well, they did because we've now identified three points in the, in the 20 minutes before the shooting, that the threat emerged,' the congressman shot back. 

Krishnamoorthi asked Cheatle to confirm the building the shooter fired off his attacks from - the AGR building - was 'clearly within rifle range' of the president. She said it was. 

'Despite the fact that AGR building was in rifle range of the stage, it was placed outside the security perimeter,' he pointed out. 

'Why is the Secret Service protective perimeter shorter than one of the most popular semi automatic weapons in the United States?' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said, referring to the AR-15.  

Cheatle said the Secret Service's full internal investigation would take 60 days. Ocasio-Cortez said that is 'simply not acceptable.' 

'There needs to be answers,' Ocasio-Cortez said. 'This is not a moment of theater, we have to make policy decisions and we have to make them now.'

Rep. Gerry Connolly asked whether having more guns in the country would make Cheatle's job 'more complicated or less complicated.' 

She declined to get into the politics of guns. 

'Director Cheatle this is simple English,' said Connolly. 'You wonder why we might have a lack of confidence in your particular ability.'

Cheatle has said she will not resign, despite a sea of Republican - and a handful of Democratic - calls to do so. 

Monday's hearing marks the first time the public will hear extensively about what happened from Cheatle under questioning from the House Oversight Committee. 

Since the July 13 shooting, she's done no press conferences and very few interviews, but has insisted she will not resign. 

Last Saturday, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks shot multiple rounds at Donald Trump, clipping his ear, injuring multiple attendees and tragically killing former firefighter Corey Comperatore at the Butler, Pa. rally. 

And last week, lawmakers were given a private briefing by Secret Service where they learned the shooter had been spotted about an hour before he fired his first shot.

Even more troubling, Secret Service counter-snipers saw Crooks on the roof 20 minutes before he shot the former president. 

Trump walked out onto the stage at 6:02 p.m.

Then at around 6:12 p.m. Crooks' first shots rang out.

What transpired instead was a security nightmare: Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to scale the building and secure his own position, while law enforcement struggled to locate him even amid pressing warnings from members of the Trump crowd. But there wasn't sufficient time to act on the tips, she explained.

'The shooter was actually identified as a potential person of suspicion,' Cheatle said. 'Unfortunately, with the rapid succession of how things unfolded, by the time that individual was eventually located, they were on the rooftop and were able to fire off at the former president.'

She was referencing claims by witnesses that they alerted law enforcement about the threat, but agents weren't able to eliminate the threat in time. Officials have pointed to the initial responding officer, who lifted himself up on the roof only to lower himself back when the gunman turned his weapon at him. 

Cheatle has take blame for the fateful security breach, but has denied calls to step down. 

'The buck stops with me,' she said.

'It was unacceptable,' she told ABC. 'And it's something that shouldn't happen again.'

'While we give overwhelming thanks to the individual Secret Service agents who did their jobs under immense pressure, this tragedy was preventable. The Secret Service has a zero fail mission, but it failed on July 13 and in the days leading up to the rally,' Comer is also expected to say, as he will again call for Cheatle's resignation.  

Also coming into question on the call was the possible motive for Crooks to commit such an atrocity.

Officials did not confirm an operating motive and said that his rationale remains a mystery. 

Authorities said that they have yet to find any ideological material that could shine light on why Crooks decided to shoot the former president.

But, they did reveal that Crooks operated several accounts on encrypted platforms that they are still working to gain access to.

Here's a timeline of how that fateful July 11 went down:

1PM

The grounds to the event at Butler Farm Show opened at 1pm.

It began an hours-long build up that saw MAGA supporters immediately pour into the area to camp out.

Security swept the area and set up perimeters, however questions have been raised over how the gunman was able to secure a clear shot just 400ft from the stage.

5PM

An hour before Trump took the stage at approximately 5pm, former GOP Senate candidate Sean Parnell warmed up the crowd, bringing cheers as he slammed President Biden and his stuttering campaign.

With the sun still high on a bright day, Trump emerged to 'God Bless the USA' playing over the loudspeakers at 6:03pm, and remained waving and shaking his fist at the crowd for several minutes.

6:11PM

Trump brought out a large graphic with statistics on the migrant crisis at the southern border, and told the crowd at 6:11pm: 'That chart's a couple of months old...'

'If you want to really see something that's sad, take a look at what happened,' Trump continued - before he abruptly grabbed the side of his head as several 'pops' filled the event space.

6:12PM

The 78-year-old dropped to the floor in an instant as five more shots rang overhead in quick succession, before four Secret Service agents raced to the stage and dove on top of the former president.

Stunning images showed Trump cowered on the floor as agents protected him, with blood dripping down his cheek.

Several more Secret Service agents continued to flood the stage, while four heavily armed officers lined the perimeter ordering attendees to 'get down.'

The sniper, sat 400ft across from the rally on an exposed rooftop, fired another shot at the stage a second later while Trump fans streamed out of the bleachers.

Secret Service scrambled to take control of the pandemonium where three attendees were hit, one fatally, within a matter of seconds.

6:13PM

An emergency room doctor with blood spattered on his shirt later said he sprang into action to perform emergency CPR on one victim.

'The guy had spun around was jammed between the benches and a head shot here. There's lots of blood and he had brain matter,' he told CBS News.

'So I got him together so I got people there really helpful. I did CPR chest compressions as well.'

6:14PM

Microphones surrounding the stage picked up staggering detail of the urgent response, beginning with one ordering screaming people to 'get down, get down, get down.'

At the same moment, snipers set up on a roof next to bleachers were seen firing back at the gunman, with Secret Service agents surrounding Trump heard on microphones confirming the moment he was brought down.

Despite the chaos flying around the scene, the rally appeared to hold its breath to see if Trump was hit.

In a move that sparked iconic images set to define his candidacy, Trump stood up and triumphantly held his fist in the air, pumping it at his supporters to raucous relief.

'USA, USA, USA,' the crowd chanted at the sight, with a blood-spattered Trump appearing to mouth the word 'fight' several times as Secret Service tried to hurry him away.

While getting up off the floor, an agent picked up a white cloth and held it to Trump's bleeding ear, telling him to 'hold that on your head, it's bloody.'

'Are we good?' one male agent says, as another responds quickly: 'Shooter down!'

'Shooter's down. Are we good to move?' one says next. 'We're clear, we're clear, we're clear - let's move.'

Trump repeatedly ordered the agents to 'let me get my shoes', to which one responds: 'I got you sir, I got you.'

The gunman was killed by agents shortly after opening fire, as footage emerged online showing him appear to be shot in the head while crouched on the roof. 

Crooks was seen laying lifeless on the rooftop in a later image, surrounded by law enforcement stood over him.  

A number of camouflaged law enforcement officers emerged from the side of the stage, part of a huge law enforcement presence that flooded the area within minutes of the first shot was fired. 

At 6:14pm, Trump was whisked into his motorcade by around dozen Secret Service agents, who formed a protective human shield around him. 

Before he got into his SUV, Trump again raised his fist to signify triumphantly surviving the assassination attempt.