Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle finally resigned on Tuesday, 10 days after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally. The decision followed Cheatle’s disastrous appearance at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday that united lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in calling for her to step down.
While Cheatle may be on her way out the door, a mountain of questions remain about the security and law enforcement failures that led to attempt on Trump’s life and the death of rally goer Corey Comperatore.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) to discuss Cheatle’s resignation and to reveal what he has learned about the events that led up to the shooting from whistleblowers.
Cheatle Resigns
Congress doesn’t agree on much of anything these days, but Cheatle’s obfuscating and lack of accountability led House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) to reach the same conclusion that she was no longer up for the job.
Megyn said Cheatle’s appearance may have been “the most disastrous” hearing ever held on Capitol Hill. “She was pummeled by both sides… which makes her some kind of miracle worker,” she quipped. “She declined to answer virtually any of the very basic questions for lawmakers like: How many agents were protecting Mr. Trump? Who decided the security perimeters? Why weren’t Secret Service agents aware of the threat until seconds before the gunfire started?”
In a written statement, President Joe Biden thanked Cheatle for her service. “She has selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation throughout her career in the United States Secret Service,” the statement read. “We especially thank her for answering the call to lead the Secret Service during our Administration and we are grateful for her service to our family.”
The letter also noted that Biden plans to “appoint a new Director soon.”
Whistleblower Allegations
Despite what Megyn called Cheatle’s “forced resignation,” it is still not clear what led to 20 year old Thomas Matthew Crooks being able to fire from the roof of a building some 130 yards from a former president despite being known to law enforcement at least an hour beforehand.
Hawley said that his office has heard from “a number of whistleblowers” who are starting to fill in the gaps. Just yesterday, the senator said he received information from an individual who alleged “law enforcement had designated at least one individual, maybe more… whose job it was to be on the roof – not in the vicinity, not around on the roof,” he explained. “And this person… according to whistleblower, decided it was awfully hot that day and abandoned their post… and that is why the roof was left wide open.”
That information throws more cold water on Cheatle’s baffling claim that the relatively flat roof was left unoccupied because of its pitch. “It wasn’t because of the slope, contrary to what the former Secret Service director said,” Hawley noted. “It was because this law enforcement individual just didn’t want to be on there.”
Another whistleblower who contacted Hawley told him that “law enforcement were supposed to be patrolling the perimeter of that same building,” which belongs to American Glass Research, but were not because of the weather.
“There was supposed to be law enforcement patrolling the perimeter, but they weren’t doing it either,” he said. “Instead, because of the heat, whistleblowers told me the law enforcement went inside the building, so you got the roof abandoned, you got law enforcement inside the building in the air conditioning, and you have the building essentially open.”
Hawley said whistleblowers also told him that Secret Service had left the protection of the American Gland Research building to “local and/or state law enforcement” and they “failed” to provide the adequate level of security.
Blame Game
With that said, the senator noted there is a blame game of sorts underway. “I will just note that behind the scenes here and not so behind the scenes here, there is a lot of attempts at blame shifting,” he shared. “And I am even getting it from whistleblowers.”
While whistleblowers from “the Secret Service world” are calling out the local police, Hawley said he has heard from people on the local side who are placing the blame on the Secret Service. “They are saying, ‘Don’t blame us, the Secret Service didn’t even show up when they were supposed to for the walkthrough plan with local law enforcement,'” he recounted.
In Hawley’s view, this only reaffirms the need for a thorough investigation. “You’ve got law enforcement on both sides pointing the finger at each other, and you’ve got a former Secret Service director who would take no responsibility,” he concluded. “But the bottom line is this: Somebody was supposed to be on that roof, somebody was supposed to be guarding that building, and nobody did either.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Sen. Hawley by tuning in to episode 845 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.