The US Secret Service “failed” in its duty to safeguard US Presidential candidate Donald Trump from an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on 13 July, its director, Kimberly Cheatle, said at a congressional hearing on Monday.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” Cheatle told the House of Representatives' Oversight Committee.
“As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse,” she added, labelling the incident the agency's “most significant operational failure’’ in decades.
Since 13 July, her agency, which is in charge of protecting prestigious American individuals, has faced criticism over possible oversights and human failures. Calls for Cheatle’s resignation have come from both Republicans and Democrats.
An independent inquiry has been ordered to shed light on the assassination attempt against Trump. A critical question is how an individual armed with a semi-automatic rifle found his way onto a building’s rooftop, within 150 metres of the stage where Trump was giving a speech at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the northeast of the US.
This weekend, US media reported that the Secret Service had dismissed requests to beef up Trump’s security in the past.
The agency handles the safety of the President, Vice-President, former Presidents and their families, as well as that of major election candidates and visiting foreign heads of state.
