A Republican senator who confronted Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told DailyMail.com that she tried to run away from him when he asked her about the near-assassination of Donald Trump while refusing to answer basic questions.
After 20-year-old Thomas Crooks shot former President Donald Trump and killed former firefighter Corey Comperatore at a campaign rally on Saturday, Cheatle was called to resign and multiple investigations into the matter were announced.
In a call Wednesday with Cheatle, FBI Director Christopher Wray and lawmakers, officials revealed that Trump’s protective team spotted the shooter 20 minutes before he opened fire.
On that call, Cheatle declined to answer questions about why Trump was allowed on stage.
On Wednesday, a group of senators, including Cramer, took matters into their own hands, cornering Cheatle at the convention in a luxury suite.
He then “ran away” when they began demanding answers, the senator said.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who confronted Cheatle, said she “ran away” when he tried to press her on why the Secret Service allowed Donald Trump onstage at his campaign rally in Butler when they knew there was a “suspicious” person of interest on the loose.
“We were prevented from asking questions about the timing, why Donald Trump was allowed to take the stage after a threat had been identified,” Cramer said of the call.
“And there she was, walking into a suite, and there were a bunch of us standing around, and we walked over and said, you know, we should go talk to her,” the Republican told DailyMail.com.
“So we went in to ask her that question, and instead of answering it… she said we need to do this somewhere else.”
“We said, ‘Great, let’s go.’ And she left. But she didn’t leave to join us, she left to get away from us. She left.”
He said the interaction exuded a lack of respect not only toward lawmakers but toward the country and the world.
The North Dakota woman insisted she has an obligation to immediately come clean about what happened at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally, but instead seems more focused on “covering her back.”
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.
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.
Video of the interaction shows Republican Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and James Lankford of Oklahoma also joining Cramer in demanding answers from Cheatle on Wednesday.
“This is exactly what you were doing on the call,” Cramer can be heard saying in the clip.
“You’re getting in the way,” Barrasso yelled at Cheatle as she walked away from him.
“You brought him to the brink of death,” Barrasso said. “So resignation or full explanation.”
Blackburn demanded of the director of the Secret Service: ‘This was an assassination attempt, you owe the people answers, you owe President Trump answers.’
The footage shows Cheatle walking with what appears to be a security escort who accompanied her during the tense standoff.
“I don’t think this is the forum to have this discussion,” Cheatle told lawmakers.
‘This hospitality suite is really to thank the partners who helped secure the Republican National Convention. And I wouldn’t want to take anything away from their evening.’
Cheatle has been under increasing 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.
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.
“That particular building has a sloped roof at its highest point,” he said in an interview explaining his reason for not sending officers to the top of the building.
“And then, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there and that is we wouldn’t want to put someone on a sloped roof.”
“The decision was made to secure the building from within,” he added.
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.”
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.
The director of the Secret Service is expected to testify before Congress about the shooting on Monday.