US Secret Service director admits Trump shooting an ‘operational failure’
Al Jazeera
Kimberly Cheatle says the incident is ‘the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades’.
The US Secret Service chief has admitted to Congress that the agency failed to prevent the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
“We failed. As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse,” Director Kimberly Cheatle, who faces Republican calls for her removal, said on Monday in testimony before the Oversight Committee of the House of Representatives.
“The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13 is the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades,” Cheatle said.
The shooting at an outdoor campaign rally wounded Trump in the ear, killed one rally attendee and injured two others.
The suspected shooter, 20-year-old nursing home aide Thomas Crooks, was killed by law enforcement. The motive for the shooting is not clear.
