Cheatle’s statement came hours after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the shooting a “security failure” but refused to assign blame, telling reporters at the White House that he had “100% confidence” in the Secret Service and its director. One rally attendee was killed and two others wounded, officials said. President Trump said the bullet “pierced” his right ear.
The shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, was the first attack on a U.S. leader under Secret Service protection since the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. The Secret Service’s failure to secure the roof used by the gunman — one of the most basic preparations for a public speaking event — has raised questions about staffing, strategy and leadership.
The tensions come as authorities shift their focus to security for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.
In an interview with ABC News, Cheatle appeared to shift some of the blame onto local authorities who worked with the Secret Service on Saturday. He said that investigators moved quickly to stop the shooter after rally attendees spotted him on the roof of a building just outside the security perimeter, but that police officers remained inside the building while the shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was on the roof.
Cheatle noted that the Secret Service provided perimeter security around the event venue, while local police secured the area including the building.
The Secret Service is responsible for coordinating the overall security planning for events attended by presidents, former presidents and other dignitaries whom the service protects. It also has primary responsibility for dealing with the risks of long-range gunfire and obstructed visibility, including directing local police to guard buildings that might present an opening for an attacker.
“There was local police in the building. There was local police in the area working the perimeter of the building,” she told ABC News.
Butler Township police have referred the investigation to Pennsylvania State Police, which said in a statement that it has “provided all resources” requested by the Secret Service. State police have referred questions about the investigation to the FBI.
In response to the weekend riots in western Pennsylvania, Mayorkas said the Secret Service would coordinate security for Trump, Biden and Vice President Harris and provide security details for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s newly announced running mate.
Additionally, officials will be assembling a team to conduct an independent investigation into the apparent deficiencies, Mayorkas said Saturday.
“We need to act quickly and urgently because this is a security imperative,” he told reporters, saying work should start “within days”.
Lawmakers have also launched their own investigations. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, led a group of Republican lawmakers in a letter to Cheatle by Thursday asking for a list of the agents and officers who provided security at the rally, as well as a record of the incident and guidance from investigators’ leadership on the shooting.
The letter asks Cheatle to submit additional materials by July 29, including security assessments, reports and plans related to the agency’s preparations for this incident.
“The American people deserve answers,” Comer wrote on social media, saying he expected Cheatle to testify before the committee on July 22.
The House Oversight Committee is expected to be briefed on the assassination attempt on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the planning.
Mayorkas is an independent. The investigation will be led by an individual outside the Department of Homeland Security and “outside the government to ensure its independence is not called into question,” and its findings will be made public.
“It is vital that this independent investigation has the public’s confidence,” he added.
Mayorkas said he would investigate the actions of the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies before, during and after the shooting.
“This should never have happened,” Mayorkas told CNN on Tuesday. “This is a failure.”
Cheatle said the agency would cooperate fully with the independent investigation and “will work with the appropriate congressional committees on any oversight activities.”
The U.S. Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security. Biden has nominated Cheatle to be its director. In 2022, she revealed that she was in charge of security when Trump was vice president.
The agency has recently come under intense scrutiny for failing to preserve text messages during the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. A 2015 House Oversight Committee report found that the Secret Service was botched in multiple security breaches during the Obama administration, including the 2011 White House shooting.
Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the chairman and ranking minority member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Monday that their committees would conduct a bipartisan investigation into the shooting. Senators will hold hearings “to examine the security failures” that led to the shooting, the committee announced.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) also asked Cheatle for a list of documents.
The Secret Service agents who protected Trump and shot and killed the assailant were widely praised for their swift and decisive action, but it is unclear how Crooks was able to get onto a nearby roof with an AR-style rifle.
Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and defense secretary under the Obama administration, said the Biden administration should quickly evaluate the mistakes made at the Trump rally to prevent new attacks in the coming months with the country remaining deeply divided ahead of the November election.
“Someone needs to take charge of this investigation as soon as possible,” Panetta, now a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, said in a phone interview. “We’re at the beginning of a political campaign, not the end of a political campaign. We need to know quickly what went wrong and make sure we put it right.”
Panetta said that when he was White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration, he would meet with the Secret Service before any presidential event to go over all possible scenarios and make sure they were prepared for any contingency.
Bill Bratton, a former New York City police commissioner and member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, said an FBI-led criminal investigation would take precedence over an administrative investigation into the Secret Service’s actions. Authorities must quickly and definitively determine whether the shooter acted alone, which Bratton said is increasingly likely, or whether he was conspiring with a terrorist organization, he said.
Bratton praised the Secret Service agents who protected Trump during the raid, but said the agency’s preparations before the rally were “inadequate” and “not at the peak of what the Secret Service can do.”
“Nobody questions the courage and the actions of the Secret Service agents who put themselves between the shooter and the president at the beginning of this incident,” he said. “It’s the run-up that really gets the attention. It’s certainly possible that people will lose their jobs as a result of this.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Cheatle has Biden’s support and confidence. Mayorkas said he did not believe anyone had been moved or removed from Trump’s security staff.
Emilio T. Gonzalez, a former Army intelligence officer and Department of Homeland Security official, said the shooting revealed serious flaws in the Secret Service’s planning and resources, and that he believes much of Trump’s security detail should be replaced in the wake of the shooting.
“From a security perspective, this was very, very coordinated,” Gonzalez, a Trump supporter, said in an interview.
“This man should never have been this close to President Trump. There should have been full Secret Service protection, and there wasn’t,” he added. “So the question is, why didn’t they?”
Jacqueline Alemany, Abigail Hauslohner, Carol D. Leonnig, Kyle Melnick, María Luisa Paul, Leo Sands, Praveena Somasundaram and Matt Viser contributed to this report.
