The first congressional hearing into the Trump assassination attempt begins shortly (2024)

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is set to testify before the House Oversight Committee Monday on the security failures that preceded the shooting of former President Donald Trump.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

The first congressional hearing into the assassination attempt on Donald Trump starts today. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will testify before the House Oversight Committee. Here is that committee's chair, James Comer, a Kentucky Republican yesterday on "Fox News Sunday".

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JAMES COMER: What went wrong with an agency that has a no-fail mission?

MARTÍNEZ: NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales has been covering the investigations into the shooting. So what do you expect to hear from Cheatle today?

CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: That the Secret Service failed. We expect Kimberly Cheatle to say in her prepared remarks that she takes full responsibility for any security lapse. This is according to remarks obtained by NPR. We also expect her to say the agency is fully cooperating with the FBI's investigation, all congressional oversight and other probes. The Secret Service is also conducting an internal review. And she says, quote, "she'll move heaven and earth" to make sure what happened last weekend never happens again.

MARTÍNEZ: So I'm pretty sure, Claudia, that they - lawmakers will have a lot of questions for Cheatle. What are they hoping to find out?

GRISALES: Well, Comer told Fox he wants to know who is at fault for this security failure. And he pushed back at some claims the agency is stretched thin.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY")

COMER: The budget is more than enough to provide adequate protection for the presidential candidates. So we have a lot of questions as to how they're managing their money.

GRISALES: He said he expects it will be a roughly six-hour hearing. We also expect members to ask about reports from the weekend from The Washington Post and The New York Times noting that some Trump campaign requests for more Secret Service resources were rejected before the rally.

I spoke to the spokesman for the Secret Service over the weekend, as well. And we did confirm, over a two-year period before the Butler rally, they did deny at least a half dozen requests.

MARTÍNEZ: OK. So how is the secret service itself, the agency - how have they responded to questions leading up to this hearing?

GRISALES: Well, Cheatle has issued a previous statement. In that, she said the agency is cooperating with all these ongoing probes tied to the shooting. And last night, another was added to the list. Earlier, President Biden had announced that he wanted to see an independent review. And Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas named a panel of experts to conduct this review of this attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

And what we understand is, what the panel will be charged with is getting to the bottom of what happened on July 13. And they'll also examine what recommendations can be issued to ensure that this would never happen again. And so all of this is under scrutiny, and we're looking at getting answers from this independent panel in about 45 days in terms of their findings.

MARTÍNEZ: Forty-five days - all right. But today is really the beginning of all of this.

GRISALES: Right.

MARTÍNEZ: What else do we know about what might be planned today?

GRISALES: Well, there are other committees that will be kicking off their investigations, also congressional members who are conducting their own probes. This includes the House Committee on Homeland Security. A bipartisan group of members will visit the site of the shooting in Butler, Penn., and that panel has also asked local officials to testify, too.

MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales. Thanks a lot.

GRISALES: Thank you.

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