Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., told Newsmax on Monday he was disappointed with how unprepared Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was to answer questions in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability regarding the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
"It's like she rolled out of bed, put a brush in her hair and went straight to a Congressional hearing," Fry, a member of the Oversight Committee, told "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE." "There was no substance whatsoever. I mean, the one time that she answered a question was actually when I asked what was the time difference between when [the shooter] was a person of suspicion and when he was an actual threat? And she actually answered, that [it] was seconds before the shots were fired. It was remarkable that we even got that.
"But we spent five or six hours today listening to her tell us that the FBI has [the investigation], and that basically there was no point in her being there. She gives more answers to the mainstream media than she does to a lawfully issued subpoena before Congress."
The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny over the assassination attempt. The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was able to climb to a roof of a building about 130 yards away from where Trump was speaking in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 and fired shots that grazed Trump in the right ear, killed someone in the crowd and injured two others.
Frustration over Cheatle is now a bipartisan issue, with Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., sending her a letter Monday demanding that she resign. A copy of the letter was posted on the Oversight Committee's X account.
"We don't have anything, [and] the American people are left scratching their heads because they don't have anything," Fry said. "Everybody equally right now is frustrated by her lack of accountability. And that's the problem in this town is that people point the finger, and they blame the FBI, and they say it's under investigation, and they don't answer your questions. Somebody's head needs to roll for this, and it starts with her. She says the buck stops with her. Well, let's follow up on that. Resign."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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