the 0, the cumberland house launch is the campaign to become the us democratic presidential nominees, winning support from thousands of members and congress present. joe biden has also induced herself to excepting the race. she could yet face a contest at the democratic convention next month. the new bulk of his knowledge and see what life doha will. so coming up, the chief of the us secret service is set to face a grilling in washington dc over the assassination attempt on former president donald trump. plus the israel launch is a new operation in gaza. at least 50 palestinians have been killed,

and con eunice for gentleness will come under attack. the thanks for joining us. we began of united states where a growing number of top democrats affirming the support behind vice president campbell of harris to become the parties. presidential nominee president joe biden was quick to endorse house to run in his place. but despite the support she went to automatically become the nominee and is not yet clear what the process will be as follows. president joe biden, southern southern decision to drop out of the race for the white house on sundays. not, of course, off the waves are concerned about his age and health. meanwhile, republican surface funded by attacking harris the trump campaign, released this video, criticizing a political record with trump saying the vice president, vice president will be easy at the beach then. by the moment we'll get reaction from capitol hill. would she have a tendency, profess, let's cross the can be,

how could, who's standing by at the white house and kimberly, clearly momentum is growing behind come to the house politically, i'm financially. but there seems to be at least some wherever and us from the democrats about simply turning this into a harris coordination. what's meant by that? yeah, that's right. and what's meant by that is that there are some very prominent democrats who have not endorsed or namely rock obama as nancy pelosi, the rock bottom. of course, the former presidents, nancy pelosi, the former house speaker, and the 2 top democrats and both the house and the senate to chuck schumer and also came jeffreys. now, why did they do that? well, the reason is, and a seems to be sort of accepted as in here in washington. the strategy is that they were instrumental in not only nudging joe biden out, but also their statements were coordinated in congratulating to abide in making

this decision for the country. but they. 2 don't want to see this as a core nation, as you pointed out for com la harris, because they know that the voters will see that as sort of in a new one thing. and that she needs to earn this in order to be accepted by the voters. particularly as a woman, is she seen this sort of riding the coat tails of joe biden. the voters are likely to be much more critical of her and less accepting. so as a result, we expect that those endorsements will come, but they won't come immediately. and kimberly, of course, allies next on the democratic national convention in august. i mean, what happens back that? yeah, well, what happens is that comma harris was going to spend between now and then showing up those delegates and she's done a pretty good job already. what we know is that from the time that joe biden made this announcement on social media that he was going to step aside,

which was mid afternoon here in washington. she was working the phones that we know that she made more than a 100 phone calls to democrats over just the span of about 10 hours. and already she's racked up a number of endorsements, some 180, or more just from congressional democrats and 12 governors across the nation. and in terms of fund raising, she's already just in grass roots donations, collected some $50000000.00. that's an enormous sum. is such a short amount of time, so it shows that for a fractured party, that was really divided over the issue of joe biden. and him having to leave and the good of the party there quickly. cole, last thing around comma la harris. but they've got to deal with those issues of those delegates at the convention. it's now open convention. those delegates that were pledged to joe biden to close out of magically go to com, let harris. she's got to convince them to vote for. they can vote for anyone they

want. so that's the task she's got between now and august. 19th, right? kimberly many things that can be how could of the white house, let's go to. she have a tons of you who joins us from capitol hill and she have, i know you are vast. the committee on herbicides in the accounts ability are amazing to grill seeing if it goes over the assassination attempt on donald trump. it of course, uh, the big question is whether political it goes with a little makers of waiting on biden's departure from the presidential race. anything mentioned that while most of the democrats just a building, what kimberly was saying, we all have and there's 2 competing competing impulses on the one hand, there is a wish for commer harris in our own words, to own the nomination for that to be some kind of testing of how us as a potential causative against donald trump. they're pretty vivid memories of houses . oscars around for the presidency was in 2020 opposing is just as bad as dirt. biden's popularity ratings are favorability ratings are as bad as j biden's in the

pose of polls, which, which summarizes the opinion polls right now, troll and trump is about 2 or 3 points for had a couple of harris. they want to be tested by one, that'd be some kind of contest, a good come test, home test between all the candidates. but on the other hand, there's also the impulse to unite. and then project reflected on trump a not give a sense of just unity. it's, it's interesting to see how those 2, there's 2 impulses all ends. right. so you can, as you ask him to a 2nd, the congressional leadership. yep. to weigh in. we do not know that the rules committee of the democratic party will meet on wednesday to have a better idea of what the price as will be to nominate that the, the replacement for, for a job. i mean, while the republicans, but you still don't have competing impulses to on the one hand that's thing, look job i desperately wanted to compete again, started by donald trump. definitely wanted to be to get the start button that he was seeing is that a fluid unpopular counted up. so on the one hand, they're saying that we've legally can test whoever's going to replace the house on top of the tickets if and when that happens. but secondly, that we also have mike johnson, the the house speakers saying, well, if

a button isn't fit to run for president and he's not fit to be present as and perhaps we should have a challenge for them to. and we should make joe biden step down immediately, so also slightly conflicting impulses that one thing to run against them and the election, but also threatening to try and get shared button to resign from the presidency as well. so lots of conflicting swelling ideas floating around here today or i, she have the money thinks that she had for tansy at the capital in washington dc and we're going to stay at the capital where i live event. and now i mentioned it earlier is taking place the committee you know, besides and the accountability is a grilling senior figures including the secret service direct to kimberly chantelle on the assassination attempt. on a former president, donald trump, the chairman of the committee, james coma is speaking some of this. unfortunately, those warnings and recommendations have gone unheeded to a former president and current candidate for president was shot in the head by stop

or within 500 feet of the podium. this is unacceptable, and we're concerned. the secret service lacks the proper management to keep protect these safe from bad actors. americans demand answers, but they have not been getting them from the secret service. we are instead learning about new facts about the events surrounding the attempted assassination. every day from whistle blowers and like americans demand accountability. but no one has yet to be fired. so this historic failure, today's witness secret service director kimberly cheadle is here under subpoena to answer questions about how the agency failed president trump and the victims who attended the rally in butler, pennsylvania. it is my firm belief director cheadle, that you should reside, however, incomplete defiance director cheadle has maintained. she will not change her

resignation. therefore, she will answer questions today for members of this community seeking to provide clarity to the american people about how these events were allowed to transpire. we will ask these questions because the secret service and it's period i get see the department of homeland security had been unwilling to provide answers to the american people. the h. s. a sought to push this here and go a different time. secret service has suggested the hearing occur without media presence, and both agencies have provided only shallow explanations to congress about what happened on july 13th. indeed, the h. s. and secret service is lack of communication with the oversight committee required me to issue a subpoena compelling director channel to attend today. and still d h. s requested more time to prepare. it shouldn't take this much time or preparation director channel to tell the truth and to be transparent with the american people. i am thankful to the ranking member mister asking for joining me

and insisting that director channel up here today. god knows the ranking member and i disagree on many things, but that does not matter. today. the safety of secret service protect these is not based on their political affiliation. and the bottom line is that under director channels leadership, we question whether anyone is safe, not president biden, not the 1st lady, not the white house, and certainly not the presidential candidates. the july 13th assassination attempt is one of the darkest days in american political history. it represents the ugly as part of what american politics has become. hatred of each other and a dangerous turn to extremism. before we are republicans or democrats, we are americans. if we place our political affiliations above our duty and love of country, we cannot maintain a country. we must ensure our republic is strong and our republic cannot be strong

when our leadership, our elections are institutions and our candidates are threatened by extremism and violence. today, director kate will answer questions about why she deserves to continue to play a clue, a critical role in preserving this country safety and at the very least what led to the catastrophic deadly events. on july 13th in butler, pennsylvania. again, i do not believe director caleb deserve to maintain your position as head of the secret service, but members of america and the american people will make their own decisions based on her answers today. urge director channel to be transparent and 1st coming in our testimony today. americans deserve the less. we have a duty to find out how this happened and to ensure it never happens again to now you'll directly member asking for his opening statement. thank you kindly, sherman komar, elijah cummings, whose beautiful visage looks down upon us,

taught us that the way to find common ground in a crisis is to look for the higher ground in last week. sherman comer and i came together to reach for that higher ground. we made a joint statement condemning the match, shooting an assassination attempt against former president. trump is a grave assault on our democracies. we road, we are united in condemning all political violence. i joined the good german and expressing condolences to the family of cory compared tore, and in setting healing wishes to the wounded victims. also of this atrocious active violence summary. calling it a miracle that former president trump escape this. they are 15 attack on like so many thousands of our fellow citizens who have been killed or seriously wounded in other a r 15 shootings. whether it is miracle is of divine providence were of an adventitious nature will be up to each of us to ponder. but our job in congress is not simply to

marvel it miracles are count on good luck, but to act as public policy legislators to do whatever we can to prevent future political violence, attempted assassinations and mass shootings. the german ire that's determined to get to the bottom of this stunning security failures that enabled this 20 year old, lone gunman who borrowed his father's in your 15th to perpetrate a mass shooting an assassination attempt at an event protected by the secret service. as well as state and local police will ask hard questions of director to yield today in order to identify and understand the shocking security failures that occurred. and to help transform the operations of the secret service to prevent anything like this from happening again. a sports fan, let ourselves off the hook either. dear colleagues, what happened in butler, pennsylvania was a double failure. failure by the secret service to properly protect former president trumpet and the failure of congress to properly protect our people from

criminal gun violence. we must therefore, also ask hard questions about whether our laws are making it too easy for potential assassins to obtain fire arms generally in a or 15. specifically, mr. compared to our a former president, trump and the other rally attendees. woodard and butler are now members of a club. no one wants to belong to the thousands of people who have fallen victim to mass shootings. last year, we had $655.00 mouth shootings in america defined as 4 or more people being shot or killed in a single event, not including the shooter. 712 people died in nearly 2700 people were wounded in these attacks and 2023 mass shootings are common place. they happen to have political rallies and constituent meetings. in our elementary schools, middle schools and high schools and churches, synagogues, and mosques and movie theaters and parades in night clubs and grocery stores in concerts and on street corners. here are the worst mass shootings in the last

11 or 12 years. the list is a grim reminder of the heretic, damage in depth wrought by assault weapons, and they are 15 in particular that have taken the lives of our children, parents, colleagues, and neighbors. this is a, it's a very partial list match, shootings that become so frequent, that we don't even hear about them anymore. since the match shooting and butler, they have already been at least 10 additional match shootings in america, 2 of which took place the same day that former president trump was targeted. one of the mass shootings on that violent saturday july 13th. it happened at 11 p. m. and a night club in birmingham, alabama, where are 4 people were shot dead and 10 others wounded. this means amazingly, that the butler attack was not even the deadliest mass shooting to happen in america on that day. but a weapon that can be used to commit to mass shooting an event under the full

protection of the secret service together with dozens of state and local police is obviously an intolerable threat to the rest of us who do not receive such protection. and obviously does not belong in our communities. it's time to pass and universal background checks and build on this administration's work to ensure that we permanently close the loop holes and the brady law for gun show purchase is online purchases and private sales. to prevent those weapons from getting into the hands of people, we know to be a threat to others of what happened in butler shows why, even closing these loopholes however, will not keep assault weapons out of the hands of potential assassins and mass murderers under federal law. and in the vast majority of states, even young people not old enough to buy a beer, legally can legally purchase an own. they are 15 and carried in public. the shooter and butler used his fathers, they are 15. we have to find the courage and resolved to pass a band on. they are 15 and other assault weapons,

a band as broad support. even the new york post loudly endorsed such a band of 2019 we have passed and it's all weapons band before republicans and democrats together passed it in 1994. alas, in 2004, we allowed the band to expire. we know this weapons band worked. one study found that in the decade that followed the bands of laps mass shootings went back up a 183 percent. and debts from mass shootings went up to 139 percent. but even as we change the secret service inactive band weapons of war, like they are 15, we still will fall in short of our duty. if we fail to denounce every instance of politically motivated violence in whatever form it takes. republicans and democrats, again, have come together to denounce this assassination attempt, just as we did the violent attempts on the lives of our colleagues, representative steven scully's and representative gabby difference in on top lo. see, the husband of speaker, nancy pelosi,

who was attacked and brutalized in his home. and in the immediate aftermath of the january 6th, mass violence waged against congress and the vice president in the constitutional transfer power, democrats and republicans alike, including senator mcconnell, german komar, and other colleagues all denounced this violent assault on our democracy. the wounded, approximately a 140 officers from the us, capital police, and the metropolitan police department. and i commend them for acting to to announce that attack. just as democrats moved swiftly to denounce the attack on congressmen police is going is police scientist, political scientists tell us that authoritarian attacks on democratic institutions begin with political parties refusing to disobey our openly embracing political violence. we have to reject that on a strong bi partisan basis, as chairman told me or not have done, even as we insure. our secret service is up towards the vital task of protecting

presidents and candidates. and as we work to ensure that america, the streets of our country are free from the violence of weapons of war. thank you mister german, i go back to you. thank you gentlemen. yields back today we are joined by kimberly cheadle who was sworn in the office on september 17th, 2022 as the director of the united states secret service. prior to our appointment director to, to a senior director of global security at pepsico before her role at pepsi, she served 27 years and the secret service. for sure, the committee rule 9 g. the witness will please stand and raise her right hand. do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. so help you god let the record show that the witness answered in the affirmative. thank you. we certainly appreciate you being here today and look forward to your testimony. were we normally limit testimony to uh, open statement to 5 minutes,

but take all the time that you need. uh, obviously the rules that, that we will, and about that when you're finished with your statement, we will then turn to questions. each member will have 5 minutes. and just a note to the members, i'm going to strictly adhere to the 5 minutes. what's 5 minutes is up? i will hit the gabble. if the directors in the process of answering the question will certainly let her finish her answers. and then we will move on. we have, we're gonna have about a 100 percent attendance here today, plus a few additional uh, add on. so this will be a very link the hearing. and we want to make sure every member gets there 5 minutes uninterrupted. to be able to ask these important questions in this very bi partisan during today. i now recognize director cheadle for your opening statement. thank you. good morning, sherman culmer ranking member raskin,

and distinguished members of the committee. my name is kimberly chattel and i am the director of the united states secret service. i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. this ass nation attempt a former president, donald trump, on july 13th is the most significant operational failure of the secret service in decades. and i am keeping him and his family and my thoughts. i would like to offer my sincerest condolences to the family of cory compared to r, a former fire chief and a hero who was killed in this senseless shooting. i would also like to acknowledge those who are injured in butler, david dutch, and james copeland haven, and i wish them a speedy recovery. i would be remiss if i did not also extend my condolences on the passing of your colleagues congresswoman, sheila jackson, lee. miss jackson lee was always engaged in the oversight of the secret service and her passing is a great loss to this party. the secret service of solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. on july 13th,

we failed. as the director of the united states secret service, i take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency. we are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. we must learn what happened and i will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like july 13 does not happen again . let me state unequivocally nothing. i have said should be interpreted to place blame for this failure on our federal, state, or local law enforcement partners who supported the secret service and butler. we could not do our job without them. we rely on the relationships built over years of working together to secure events and conduct investigations. our agents officers and support personnel understand that every day we are expected to sacrifice our lives to execute a no failed mission. as witnessed, on july 13th, our special agents shielded former president trump with their own bodies on stage,

while shots were being fired, selflessly willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. without hesitation, i am proud beyond words of the actions taken by the former president's detail, the counter sniper team, who neutralize the gunman and the tactical team who was prepared to act. i will be transparent as possible when i speak with you. understanding though, at times that i may be limited in providing a thorough response in this open setting, due to associated risk with sharing highly sensitive protective methodologies. i do not want to inadvertently provide you today with inaccurate information as since january 1st 2024. the secret service has successfully secured over $7500.00 sites. every protective advance comes with its own set of challenges and requires a customized mitigation strategy including specific assets. security plans are multi layered, provide in 360 degrees of protection. these layers include personnel, technical,

and technical assets which are force multiplier for our protective foster. during every advance, we attempt to strike a balance between enabling the protect you to be visible and our protective requirements to be secure. i know this because i have spent 29 years in this agency . i came up through the ranks. i've secured events for every president since president clinton supervisor and vice president cheney's detail. let our training center oversaw all of the investigations and protective visits in the state of georgia. supervised on vice president biden, c t o, and the agencies entire protective mission during the trump administration. the comprehensive advance process involves collaborative planning between our secret service to protect the staff, local law enforcement partners, and the level of security provided for the former president, increased well before the campaign and has been steadily increasing as threats

evolved. the security plan included a full assessment of the butler farm show ground search programs to identify security vulnerabilities and practice security plan for the project, the attendees and the public. and immediately following the assassination attempt, i directed the activation of my crisis center. i assembled my executive team to begin searching more protective resources to the former president and to insure the wellness of our people post incident all while securing an active crime scene. i immediately ordered a reevaluation of the republican national convention security plan, and i increased the security posture in the national capital region for all permanent project these insights. at the same time, i initiated a mission assurance investigation within our agency. i have instructed my team that all necessary resources will be dedicated to investigating these matters. we will not rest until we have explored every option and we will leave no stone unturned.

but i want to be clear. i am not waiting for these investigations to be completed prior to making changes. over the past 2 weeks, we successfully loved the planning and execution of the 75th natal summit and the republican national convention. over the next few months, we will implement security plans for the democratic national convention, the united nations general assembly. and i've already begun planning and coordinating the 2025 in order ation. it is now more important than ever for the men and women of the secret service to remain resilient and just focus on what is necessary to carry out our critical mission. our agency needs to be adequately resourced in order to serve our current mission requirements and anticipate future requirements. the secret service currently protects $36.00 individuals on a daily basis, as well as world leaders who visit the united states, like israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, who arrived in washington dc. today, the coming years will bring an unprecedented heavy protection tempo. i have no

doubt that the processes that i implement implemented during my 10 years director in addition to my nearly 30 years of experience in this agency position. the secret service to be stronger of our mission is not political. it is literally a matter of life and death and the tragic events on july 13 reminds us of that. i have full confidence in the men and women of the secret service. they are worthy of our support and executing our protective mission. i will now answer any questions that the committee may have. thank you very much, director kate a will now begin. there are 5 minutes of questions and i will begin just for the record, the secretary, which has an annual budget of around $3100000000.00 and i believe around $8000.00 employees. is that correct? yes, sir. obviously the remaining security failures on the day of the attempted assassination and leading up to that day, let's start with the building that the shooter used to shoot. president trump. com at any point saturday. did the secret service have an agent on top of that roof?

sir? i'm sure, as you can imagine, that we are just 9 days out from this incidents and they're still an ongoing investigation. and so i want to make sure that any information that we are providing so users will create, okay. why did the secret service not? can you enter why the secret service didn't place a single agent on the roof? we are still looking into the advance process and the decision, the okay. okay, let's. was it that building within the perimeter? that should be secure? do we agree with that? the building was outside of the parameter on the day of the visit. but again, that is one of the things that during the investigation we want to take a look at and determine whether or not other decisions should have been made. and one of the things that you said, i believe in an interview, that there was an agent on the roof because it was a slope roof. is that, is that normal and do you fear that that immediately creates an opportunity for

future would be assassins to look for a slanted roof. i mean it, this is a huge question that every american has why, it wasn't a secret service agent on the roof. and there have been reports that agents were supposed to be on the roof, but it was hot that day and they didn't want to be under is can you answer any of those questions, director? so i appreciate you asking me that question sherman, i should have been more clear in my answer when i spoke about where we placed personnel and that interview. what i can tell you is that there was a plan in place to provide over watch. and we are still looking into responsibilities and who was going to provide over watch. but the secret service in general, not speaking specifically to this incident when we are providing over watch whether that be through counter snipers or other technology prefer to have sterile roof tops be the secret service using the drones for surveillance that day. so again, i'm not going to get into specifics of that day and itself,

but there are times during a security plan that the secret service does deploy an asset. like if there were reports that the shooter used to ground just a few hours before the rally start time, is that accurate? i have heard those same reports and again and waiting for the final report. you know, if you can't answer the question that you're a teacher, but can you answer this? do you know, do you know? i'm not asking yes or no, but do you know if the shooter used to groan before the shooting? that information has been passed to us from the f b. i had many secret service agents were assigned to president trump on the day of the rally. again, i'm not going to get into the specifics of the numbers of personnel that we had there.