GOP Representative William Timmons of South Carolina questioned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday about reports indicating that the Pittsburgh Secret Service field office deployed four times more agents for a First Lady Jill Biden event compared to former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, where he was shot.
Cheatle neither confirmed nor denied that was the case.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune, Biden addressed a crowd of around 300 people at an event at Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, around the same time that Trump spoke at his rally, which was attended by several thousand.
Timmons began his questioning of Cheatle by asking if she agreed that Secret Service resources allocated to events should match the event’s risk profile.
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 then compared Trump’s outdoor rally, which had specific threats from Iran, to Biden’s indoor event.
“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 the question.
“The number of personnel that were allocated to both of those events were comparable to the risk at both of those events,” she said.
Timmons then noted that Trump was shot, along with multiple rally attendees. One, 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, was killed.
The congressman suggested that if nine additional Secret Service agents had been present, the situation might have turned out very differently.
“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.
“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,” Cheatle said.
“Did you just say there were sufficient resources?” Timmons asked.
“President Trump got shot. Someone got killed. There were not sufficient resources, clearly,” he continued.
“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.
WATCH:
We are asking Secret Service Director Cheatle a lot of straight questions and not getting any straight answers.
— Congressman William Timmons (@RepTimmons) July 22, 2024
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
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