Gary Palmer to Secret Service Director: 'I don't understand how you can stay in the position you're in'

U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) condemned the Director of the Secret Service Monday in light of the agency’s failure to prevent the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testified during a House Oversight Committee hearing about the shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pa. on July 13th.

“The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13 is the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades and I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts,” Cheatle said in her opening statement.

Palmer, who sits on the House Oversight Committee, criticized the director and suggested that she should step down.

“I don’t understand how you can continue to stay in the position you’re in when this was a failure of historic magnitude,” Palmer said. “Forty-three years without anything like this happening, you failed, in this case, in a spectacular way.”

The Secret Service's performance on July 13, 2024, was a failure of historic magnitude.

Director Cheatle should resign immediately. pic.twitter.com/huwQfaG2eb

— Gary Palmer (@USRepGaryPalmer) July 22, 2024

Palmer seemed genuinely perplexed about how the shooter was able to get access to the roof of the building next to the rally, even being spotted by rally goers minutes before Trump took the stage.

“Why was the building not occupied on the roof?” Palmer asked. “I mean, you could have put Barney Fife on the roof and kept somebody from getting up there. So why wasn’t that done?”

“The plan that was developed that day encompassed a number of security mitigations…” replied Cheatle before being interrupted by Palmer.

“No, ma’am,” Palmer said. “The issue is the site supervisor, the site agent, and the special agent in charge, who I think signed off on the plan, did not include that in the inner perimeter, and they didn’t have a plan to secure the building.”

Palmer then brought up the fact that innocent attendees were needlessly put at risk because of the lack of action by the Secret Service.

“It wasn’t just the fact that he had a rifle,” he said, “it was the fact that he had the ability to inflict enormous harm, enormous numbers of casualties had those devices exploded,” Palmer said. “The failure to secure that building not only put the former president’s life in danger, it put the lives of individuals in the crowd in danger as well.”

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Haleyville) praised Palmer for his questioning of Cheatle.

Thank you @USRepGaryPalmer for your questions of the director of the Secret Service at today's @GOPoversight committee on the failure of security at the Trump rally. The way she has answered today's questions just reinforces my belief she should resign. https://t.co/Qb8Ba4v4iL

— Robert Aderholt (@Robert_Aderholt) July 22, 2024