Trump assassination attempt: Comer to urge Secret Service director to resign at hearing

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) will call for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign when she appears before his committee on Monday for a hearing on the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Comer will say, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks obtained by the Washington Examiner, that it is his “firm belief” that Cheatle should step down following the Secret Service’s grave security failure at a Trump rally that left one dead and two seriously injured.

“While we give overwhelming thanks to the individual Secret Service agents who did their jobs under immense pressure, this tragedy was preventable,” Comer plans to say.

Cheatle is set to appear before the committee at 10:00 a.m., where she is expected to face difficult rounds of questioning from both Republicans and Democrats. Lawmakers from both parties have, in the aftermath of the rally, excoriated the Secret Service for allowing 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to access a rooftop in close proximity to Trump and fire multiple rounds into the rally crowd with an AR-15 rifle.

Comer’s opening statement will, at times, strike a rare tone of unity in a hearing room that has often been the setting for partisan sparring and bitter jabs.

Comer will say that the attempt on Trump’s life was “one of the darkest days in American political history.”

“It represents the ugliest parts of what American politics has become: hatred of each other and a dangerous turn to extremism,” Comer will say. “Before we are Republicans or Democrats, we are Americans. If we place our political affiliations above our duty and love of country, we cannot maintain a country.”

Comer will also blast Cheatle for her agency’s lack of communication in the week after the attempt on Trump’s life.

“Americans demand answers, but they have not been getting them from the Secret Service,” Comer will say.

Trump came near death at the rally as a bullet grazed the side of his head and caused a minor injury to his ear while he was speaking onstage.

The Secret Service released an initial statement on the assassination attempt and held a press conference on how the agency would protect the Republican National Convention. Cheatle, for her part, appeared for a couple of television interviews, saying in one with ABC News that she does not plan to resign.

The majority of details about what happened have, however, surfaced through anonymously sourced media reports and whistleblowers to Congress.

One such report in the Wall Street Journal stated that Crooks was able to fly a drone over the rally site hours ahead of the event. Several outlets, including the Washington Examiner, reported on details that lawmakers received in private briefings with the Secret Service and FBI. Lawmakers were told, for example, that the Secret Service was alerted 20 minutes before the shooting of a suspicious person outside the rally with a rangefinder, which is a firearm accessory used to take long shots.

Whistleblowers told the House Judiciary Committee that a Secret Service special agent in charge warned law enforcement officials that the agency would have “limited resources” the week of the rally because it was also protecting the NATO summit in Washington, D.C.

Comer plans to note that the public is “learning about new facts about the events surrounding the attempted assassination every day from whistleblowers and leaks” instead of from the Secret Service.

“Americans demand accountability, but no one has yet to be fired for this historic failure,” Comer will say.