‘You’re Not Making This Easy For Us’: Shontel Brown Chides Secret Service Director Cheatle

3 months ago

During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday, Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH) questioned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle about the preparation for an event like the one where former President Donald Trump was almost killed.

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Transcript

00:00but without objection we'll enter into the record all of those and we'll take

00:03up the others after the next speaker. Chair now recognizes Ms. Brown from

00:07Ohio for five minutes. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I first want to highlight

00:10certain comments from Ranking Member Raskin, my colleagues on both sides of

00:15the aisle, President Biden and Vice President Harris, and that is political

00:19violence is completely unacceptable in this country, full stop. It is an assault

00:26on our democracy itself and I am devastated by this attack on a

00:31candidate for the president for the office of the highest office in the land

00:34and continue to pray for the victims of this shooting and their families. As

00:40someone who has known gun violence firsthand, no one should have to

00:44experience the pain of losing a loved one to weapons of war. It is deeply

00:50unfortunate political violence has become far too common. Whether it is the

00:55deadly attack on the Capitol on January 6, the assault on Speaker Pelosi's

01:00husband, or the threats of violence against election workers, we all must

01:06work to condemn political violence and tone down the rhetoric. So Director

01:13Chito, on behalf of the hard-working men and women of the Secret Service, can you

01:17give us some perspective as into what goes into securing an event like the

01:22rally, like how much time do you have to prepare? Thank you for the question.

01:28Generally when we receive notification that there's going to be an event taking

01:33place at a venue, the advance team assignments are made and there is a

01:38five-day process to conduct walkthroughs, coordinate with staff, local staff, and

01:44whether it be campaign staff or the protectees staff, and then with local law

01:49enforcement on where the perimeter is going to be, the size and the scope of

01:54the event, how many attendees there going to be, if it's an indoor rally, outdoor

01:58rally, what sort of assets are available locally, what sort of assets the Secret

02:03Service can bring to bear, and what the scope of the event that the staff is

02:08trying to accomplish. So to that point, how many agents were recommended or

02:13requested as opposed to how many were assigned? So I'm not going to get into

02:18specifics of how many were assigned, but those numbers that were requested were

02:23provided. And how many local agents were involved in the preparation, if you will,

02:31that you talked about, that five-day preparation? So there were a number of

02:34local agents from the local office as well as agents from the former Trump

02:40detail that were involved in that advance process. Do we have a number? I do

02:45have a number. I'm not going to release that number in this setting. You're not

02:51making this easy for us. This is a shocking incident on the former

02:57president's life and an appalling instance of political violence and a

03:01threat to our democratic values. I'm thankful that the former president is on

03:05the mend. And again, I'm grieving for the family and friends of Corey Comptor, who

03:10lost a loved one in this shooting and now know the unbearable pain of gun

03:16violence. I really hope this serves as a reminder about our responsibilities to

03:21attack policies, not personalities, to be honest and truthful and to treat one

03:26another with dignity, respect, and thoughtfulness. And with that, I yield my

03:30ranking. I yield my remaining time to Ranking Member Raskin.

03:34Thank you, Ms. Brown, for this.

‘You’re Not Making This Easy For Us’: Shontel Brown Chides Secret Service Director Cheatle

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