GOP Rep. William Timmons of South Carolina pressed Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday on reports that the Pittsburgh Secret Service field office sent four times the number of additional agents to cover a first lady Jill Biden event than to former President Donald Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was shot.
Cheatle neither confirmed nor denied that was the case.
Biden was speaking at an event at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh for approximately 300 people close to the same time Trump was speaking at his rally attended by several thousand, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune.
Timmons started out his questioning of Cheatle asking if she agreed with the statement that Secret Service resources allocated to a particular events should correspond to the risk profile of it.
The director agreed.
“And when two events occur at the same time and the same geographic vicinity that the risk profile of each event should be taken into account, and whichever event is greater risk should receive greater resources?” the congressman continued.
“That is correct,” Cheatle replied.
The lawmaker than contrasted Trump’s outdoor rally, when he has been under specific threats from Iran, to Biden’s indoor event.
We are asking Secret Service Director Cheatle a lot of straight questions and not getting any straight answers.
The former and future President was shot. There were multiple injuries. Someone was killed.
Director Cheatle called the resources that day “sufficient.”
Director… pic.twitter.com/0AurV0qNnn
— Congressman William Timmons (@RepTimmons) July 22, 2024
Was this a simple lone-shooter situation or is more going on behind the scenes?
“President Trump is the former president and the future president, so I would say that that is a fairly high risk event. Would you agree?” Timmons asked.
“Yes,” Cheatle replied.
“There’s a huge disparity relative to risk. Would you agree?” the congressman continued.
The director hesitated a moment and then answered, “Yes.”
“Multiple whistleblowers and various media outlets have reported that the Pittsburgh field office of the Secret Service allocated 12 additional post standers to the first lady’s event and three additional post standers to the Trump rally. Is that correct?” Timmons asked.
The director stated that no assets were diverted from the Trump rally to Biden’s event.
Timmons interrupted saying that was not his question. He specifically wanted to know about the 12 to three allocation of additional agents at the events.
Cheatle did not answer that question.
“The number of personnel that were allocated to both of those events were comparable to the risk at both of those events,” she asserted.
Timmons then noted that Trump was shot, along with multiple rally attendees. One, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, was killed.
The congressman suggested if nine more Secret Service agents had been on hand, it could have been a very different day.
“There were significantly more assets and resources available at the former president’s event than there were at the first lady’s event,” Cheatle said.
“Who made the decision to deploy 12 post standers to the casino, where the first lady was having a 400 person dinner, and only three people from the Pittsburgh field office to the 20,000 person-plus Trump rally?” Timmons asked.
Cheatle only said, “The allocation of resources is decided based on the availability of personnel and their location and where they are, but there were sufficient resources that were given to the former president’s event that day.”
Timmons appeared surprised by her response.
“Did you just say there were sufficient resources?” he questioned. “President Trump got shot. Someone got killed. There were not sufficient resources, clearly.”
“There was a gap,” Cheatle said.
Timmons concluded that the person who decided to send more resources to the Biden event over Trump’s needs to be fired — and Cheatle herself should resign.
“You’ve lost the trust of the American people,” he said.
