Maryland Democrat defends Secret Service chief: ‘Scapegoating doesn’t help’

Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) defended Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle from calls for her resignation after the security force has come under immense scrutiny following an attempted assassination of former President Trump.

Ivey, a top Homeland Security Committee Democrat, said in a NewsNation “The Hill Sunday” interview with Chris Stirewalt that any questions over her job should be left until after internal and congressional investigations into the agency’s security process.

He called the alleged security lapses by the Secret Service that led to the attempted assassination “deeply disturbing,” but said that calls for Cheatle’s resignation aren’t productive.

“Scapegoating doesn’t help,” Ivey said, acknowledging demands from top members of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

“I think it’s important for us to take a close look at what happened at really on a minute-by-minute basis on that day, figure out any kind of changes that need to be made so we don’t have this happen in the future,” Ivey said. 

“And then, you know, we can take the appropriate steps [that] need to happen quickly because we got two campaigns running, we also got other people that Secret Service is protecting at the same time,” he continued. “We’ve got to change the oil in the car while it’s going down the highway, but we have to get it done quickly.”

Trump’s attempted assassination shocked the country, in which a 20-year-old man perched on a roof outside the security perimeter of his Pennsylvania rally and took multiple shots at Trump. One shot nicked his ear, and one member of the audience was killed. 

Cheatle will face the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Monday.

“Americans demand answers from Director Kimberly Cheatle about the Secret Service’s historic security failures that led to the attempted assassination of President Trump, murder of an innocent victim, and harm to others in the crowd,” Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement.

Johnson also announced that there will be a bipartisan task force established to investigate the Secret Service in the wake of the shooting. The agency itself will also undergo an internal investigation.

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