'This Should Not Be A DEI Situation': Tim Burchett Excoriates Secret Service After Trump Shooting

3 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," Rep. Tim Buchett (R-TN) responded to the assassination attempt on former President Trump, and slammed the Secret Service.

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Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis with Forbes Breaking News. Joining me now is Congressman

00:07Tim Burchett. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me.

00:10Thank you for having me.

00:12This weekend, a really horrifying event unfolded in Pennsylvania. Former President Donald Trump

00:18survived an assassination attempt. This is the first assassination attempt since 1981.

00:25How did this happen?

00:28He lapsed, apparently, in security. It's just unthinkable that somebody could be within

00:35115 yards of the president or the former or future president, have a clear line of shot,

00:44115 yards, and nobody stopped him prior to him shooting. The president's head had been

00:52turned one inch one way. It would have been, we'd be having a different conversation today.

00:58I think the Secret Service, they need to clean house. This DEI situation that Biden has put

01:06into place and the leader of Secret Service wanting, you know, saying 30% women. I don't

01:12care if you're a purple unicorn. Just put the best players in. It should not be a DEI

01:18situation. It should be just the best performing human available in that position.

01:27It's an event that really shook Americans, regardless of party. Since the shooter was

01:32outside of the perimeter of the event, does this fall on local law enforcement? Is this

01:35a massive failure of the Secret Service? I mean, what questions do you have?

01:40Well, my questions are with Secret Service. If they have a line of sight, they're supposed

01:45to, they would surely call that out. When I was mayor of Knox County,

01:49Obama came in to Pellissippi State and I was, they had a trouble with the line of sight area

01:59that he would be, somebody could take a clean shot at him. And so we brought in 21 dump trucks

02:05so that he could literally get out of his limo and walk and, you know, be shielded by them from,

02:12um, you know, from, from a sniper. And I can remember George Bush senior coming to

02:18McGee Tyson airport and people on ridges, snipers. I can remember vice president coming

02:25to Knoxville for Senator Blackburn, snipers on the buildings, you know, to me, they just,

02:31they just missed and they've got, they've got a real problem there. There was a disconnect.

02:35There's a disconnect with getting him off the stage. You had an agent, you know, the iconic

02:40picture of him throwing his fist up in there. That should have never even been able, you should

02:44not even be able to see him at that point. There should have been bodies between him and the crowd.

02:49If there'd been two shooters, we would really, we would be in, it would have been a horrific

02:55situation I fear. You mentioned that you have some questions for the director of the secret

03:00service, Kimberly Cheadle. She's been invited to testify before the house oversight committee,

03:05a committee you sit on. So if she does come testify at that hearing,

03:09what are those questions you have for her? Yeah, I would like to know what was their,

03:17what was their line of thought in allowing someone to put a ladder up on a building

03:22and carry a high powered rifle and just literally off the street and no one stopping him?

03:27Why was there, why was that building not checked out? Why was it not blocked off? Why were there

03:32not officers in that area? Why were the officers in that area apparently not connected to what was

03:39going up on stage? When they spotted that guy on the building, they should have had,

03:43somebody should have been on the radios and get the president off the stage.

03:47Why was there a hesitation in the sniper who was taking him out, taking out the bad guy?

03:55Did he have to get clearance from a higher up before he could pull the trigger or do you have

04:00to wait until a shot was fired? There's a lot of questions that need to be answered.

04:04And it just showed some real incompetence at the top levels because that somebody has to be

04:12responsible. But this administration has never taken responsibility for anything. It's a pass

04:18the buck situation. And we don't need that. We need answers. And I'm afraid we're not going to

04:24get them from this administration. Have you received any answers to these questions yet at

04:30all? Because it's been almost 48 hours since that shooting. No. And that's what's really disturbing

04:35about it. With our security capabilities, intelligence, alleged intelligence capabilities,

04:42I mean, we ought to know what the guy had for breakfast a month ago who pulled the trigger.

04:47We ought to know everything about him. We ought to have that in our hands. And yet,

04:52the director of the Secret Service is, to my knowledge, has not made a public statement

04:57even about it. So I think that that falls on the White House and her responsibilities.

05:04Congressman, obviously, a type of event like this transcends party lines.

05:09An independent presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,

05:12does not have Secret Service protection. He's asked for it, has been denied of it.

05:18Do you think he deserves protection in light of this event?

05:23Absolutely. On my Twitter account, at Tim Burchett, I tweeted about that today,

05:27but also weeks ago I did. Hunter Biden has security services. And yet,

05:35a member of the Kennedy family running for president with their family's history is not

05:39being provided. I think that is a grave error. And I think that's showing where the politics

05:45is lying into this. And if politics is just saying he's not going to get any protection,

05:51then I think we need to really delve in deep to what's going on within our Secret Service.

05:56President Biden made an address in the Oval Office after Saturday's shooting. And he said

06:02this in part, that, quote, the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember,

06:07while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We're neighbors, we're friends,

06:11co-workers, citizens. And most importantly, we are fellow Americans and we must stand together.

06:17What do you think of the president's response within the past 48 hours to the shooting?

06:22I think they're pretty shallow, if not hollow. The president stated that we need to put Donald

06:26Trump in our crosshairs. He said that he will destroy this country. He's a threat to democracy.

06:33He needs to be taken out, along with the national media relentlessly comparing President Trump to

06:39Hitler. It creates a situation. You got to realize that this kid that tried to shoot the president,

06:48he is an American citizen. He's not a radicalized Muslim. He's not a foreigner. He's not a foreign

06:54agent. He is an American citizen. And he has been radicalized by this administration and the media.

07:04Right now, it's I mean, it's really no secret that temperatures are at an all time high.

07:09It's a deeply politicized time. What's your message to your constituents,

07:13as well as Americans as a whole, regardless of party?

07:16Well, I think God has his hand on America. And but we just keep slapping it away. We have allowed

07:23so much degradation to democracy in the last few years that it's time for America to step up. We've

07:32got to have more than 15 percent of the population go to the polls and they need to vote all the way

07:37down the ticket. And I think they need to trust their heart more than they do the women on The

07:44View and in all the pundits. I think you ought to delve into these issues and the candidates

07:51and develop a a mindset that would put you in the right place to go make the proper decision

08:00on Election Day. Congressman, before I let you go, President Trump moments ago just announced

08:07his VP pick, and that is Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. What do you make of his selection?

08:13It's a great choice. J.D.'s a Marine, and he hasn't been in Washington long enough to be

08:18compromised. Congressman, per usual, I appreciate the conversation. Thank you so much for joining me.

08:30you

'This Should Not Be A DEI Situation': Tim Burchett Excoriates Secret Service After Trump Shooting

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