Secret Service failed, but this time Congress did what was right | Opinion
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle had to go. I’m surprised it took an hours-long grilling from Republicans and Democrats during an oversight hearing to make that clear to her.
Truth be told, though, our problems haven’t disappeared just because Cheatle stepped down Tuesday.
Many of House Republicans’ high-profile hearings have been shams, including the political circus they launched for nakedly partisan and political purposes against President Joe Biden’s troubled son Hunter. But Monday’s hearing was a necessity.
Though it was clear before the hearing that Republicans and Democrats calling for Cheatle’s job were right, the hearing made that even more clear. She turned in her resignation Tuesday morning, something she should have done the morning after a young man came within millimeters of killing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Trump’s ear was grazed, but had the shooter been successful it could sparked the kind of unrest with which we might still be contending.
Cheatle acknowledged it was a “colossal failure” by the Secret Service. But it took until the day after the House hearing for her to take real accountability. Frankly, the Biden administration should have fired her after the initial chaos had settled.
During the hearing, we didn’t get many good answers as to why this happened or how a 20-year-old seeming loner was able to get a direct shot at a former president. Cheatle dodged most of the questions, citing security concerns about not wanting to reveal too many tactical details in public, knowing that even our enemies would be watching.
Members of Congress — Republicans and Democrats — pressed Cheatle hard, as they should have. It was no time for games. Tough questions came from both sides of the aisle, including from liberal Democrat U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
Ocasio-Cortez asked: “The individual used an AR-15 in order to act out his assassination attempt. An AR-15 has a range of about 4 (hundred) to 600 yards. Why is the Secret Service protective perimeter shorter than one of the most popular semi-automatic weapons in the United States?”
It was one of the most cogent, striking and important questions of the day. It came from a Democrat that some Republicans derisively refer to as “far left” or “radical left.” Yet, there she was joining them in rightful outrage during a hearing that required a maturity and seriousness that matched the moment.
Cheatle’s non-answer answer essentially amounted to saying “an advance was completed,” there are a number of factors considered, and there are a number of weapons with a variety of ranges. She said she couldn’t get into specifics.
“Some of it has to do with terrain. Cheatle said. “Some of it has to do with buildings. Some of it has to do with assets and resources that are available.”
Other questions went along the same lines, asking Cheatle if the proliferation of guns on American streets — one for more than every man, woman, and child — makes the Secret Service’s job more difficult. Cheatle refused to answer, saying she didn’t want to play politics and mentioned the Second Amendment.
On one level, her repeated non-answers made for a frustrating hearing. On another, it highlighted something just as important as the shooting. It feels as though much of the public moved on too quickly after we found out the alleged shooter was nonpartisan and may not have had a grudge against either political party.
It feels like what we too often do even in the aftermath of mass shootings. We remain intensely focused on it just long enough to determine if we can score a rhetorical point against a political opponent, instead of committing to doing whatever it takes to prevent a recurrence.
A new Secret Service director can’t do anything about that. Only we can.
This story was originally published July 24, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Secret Service failed, but this time Congress did what was right | Opinion."