Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle was rescued by her own officers after she was chased through the halls of the RNC by angry US senators demanding she explain how a gunman was allowed to shoot Donald Trump.
Cheatle was at the Milwaukee convention hall to oversee security arrangements Wednesday night after calling on senators to cover their butts over the shooting in Pennsylvania on Saturday night.
Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee led the charge, complaining that they had not been given a chance to ask Cheatle questions during the call.
“You brought him to the brink of death,” Barrasso shouted at Cheatle. “So resignation or full explanation.”
The chase continued down a hallway and up a flight of stairs before finally ending when Cheatle ran into a bathroom and his security detail blocked his pursuers from entering.
Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee chased the Secret Service chief around the conference room after she refused to answer their questions.
Speaking to ABC News, Cheatle bizarrely claimed that Secret Service snipers were not placed on the roof that Thomas Crooks used in his assassination attempt on Donald Trump because it was “too steep.”
Senator Blackburn later posted a video of the incident.
Barrasso and Blackburn later said they were not happy with what they heard during the conference call with Cheatle and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
They said they were both still waiting in line to ask their questions when the briefing ended.
“We were trying to get to the root of what had happened, how the shooter was alone on the roof and was able to stop shooting,” Barrasso said, describing the telephone briefing as a “cover-your-ass call.”
Fellow Republican senators James Lankford of Oklahoma and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota also joined the pursuit of the security service chief.
“She ran up a flight of stairs and we ran up with her,” Barrasso said. “And it appeared that she then went into a women’s bathroom and her own security closed the door and locked her.”
Cheatle has been under mounting pressure since it emerged that his agents were repeatedly warned about potential assassin Thomas Crooks as he prepared to shoot the president at Saturday’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Instead of placing his snipers on the roof of the American Glass Research Building in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Crooks fired from, he made the decision to secure the building from the inside.
The chase continued up a flight of stairs and only ended when Cheatle locked herself in a bathroom and her own Security Service personnel blocked the pursuing senators from passing.
He was seen with blood on his face on Saturday.
Trump was shot in the ear about 10 minutes after taking the stage.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman who opened fire on former President Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday
“That particular building has a sloped roof at its highest point,” he said.
‘And then, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there and that is that we wouldn’t want to put someone on a sloped roof.
“And then, you know, the decision was made to secure the building from the inside,” he added.
Thanks to Cheatle’s decisiveness, Crooks managed to evade police and the Secret Service three times, even though he had been considered a “suspicious” and could have been on the roof for up to 30 minutes before pulling the trigger.
Witnesses also pleaded with law enforcement to act when they saw him climbing onto the roof with his AR-style rifle, but the lack of security meant he was able to carry out his attempt to take the life of the 45th president.
Four sources close to President Biden’s family, including people who interacted with Cheatle during the Obama-Biden administration, told the New York Post that she was well-liked by the future first lady and her top aides, including top adviser Anthony Bernal.
‘Cheatle was part of Dr. Biden’s second lady team and Anthony lobbied for her,’ a Democratic source said.
“I heard at the time she was being considered for director that Anthony had suggested her as an option,” another source added.
Republicans preparing to question Cheatle have already focused on his own record.
Prior to being appointed by President Biden in 2022, she worked for PepsiCo as Senior Director of Global Security.
He worked for 25 years at the agency and in the Vice Presidential Protection Division.
Cheatle’s claims were heavily criticized as it emerged that the snipers who were positioned in the building on the left had also been set up on a sloped roof behind Trump’s podium, while Crooks was positioned on the right.
The Secret Service was photographed at Saturday’s rally, which was held on a sloped roof near where Trump was giving his speech.
Law enforcement personnel stand over the body of Thomas Matthews Crooks on a rooftop near the Trump rally on Saturday
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Ky.) on Fox News called her a “diversity-based hire.”
“You know she worked at Pepsi before this. I know she was a former CIA Secret Service agent, but still, this is what happens when you don’t put the best players in,” he said.
Republican officials meeting in Milwaukee have been calling for tighter scrutiny of the agency, even as the feds are implementing tighter security measures around Trump and other protégés.
“Someone, somewhere, has a lot of serious questions to answer,” House Judiciary and Gun Committee member Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota told DailyMail.com.
Also surprising was Cheatle’s decision to avoid questions so far, as he was not present at the initial press conference led by the FBI.
The investigation launched by President Joe Biden after the incident is being overseen by the Justice Department, not Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service.
“That says a lot,” former House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz told DailyMail.com.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said his chief “has no intention of resigning” when questioned last night about his search through the RNC.
“She deeply respects members of Congress and is firmly committed to transparency as she leads the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthens the agency through lessons learned from these important internal and external reviews,” he added.
