by Sharon Rondeau
(Jul. 21, 2024) — During the 9:00 a.m. EDT hour of Sunday’s “Fox & Friends,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL13) asserted that U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will imminently resign.
Cheatle is scheduled to testify to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Monday morning in response to a subpoena from committee Republicans in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of former and now-2024 Republican presidential nominee President Donald J. Trump.
The hearing commences at 10:00 a.m. EDT, is open to the public and will be livestreamed here.
On Saturday evening, several commenters on the “X” platform contended Cheatle would resign as soon as Monday morning, perhaps in light of The Washington Post‘s reporting, citing “four people familiar with the requests,” contradicting the Secret Service’s initial denial that additional security resources were requested by Trump’s Secret Service security and subsequently denied.
The time frame of the denials was the two-year period prior to the assassination attempt, The Post said.
CNN reported Sunday morning that “Former President Donald Trump’s security detail had complained they were not being given enough resources and personnel by the Secret Service over the past two years, and the agency acknowledged Saturday it denied some requests.”
A number of congressmen, including one Democrat senator as of this writing, have called on Cheatle to resign.
While the assassin’s bullet did not pierce Trump’s brain due to his turning his head to the right at the moment it came toward him, a retired firefighter, Corey Comporatore, was killed and two others seriously injured.
Both victims remain in the hospital but are recovering, reports appear to show.
On today’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” White House physician to Trump, Obama and George W. Bush Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX13) told host Maria Bartiromo he examined Trump after the attack. While the injury is “healing well,” he said, it could have long-lasting effects. The bullet came within “one or two centimeters” of entering Trump’s brain, a likely fatal event, Jackson said.
On Saturday the AP reported Jackson’s release of a detailed letter on Trump’s medical condition. “Given the broad and blunt nature of the wound itself, no sutures were required,” the outlet quoted Jackson as having written. Jackson also reported the local hospital which first rendered aid to Trump conducted a CT scan.
Jackson has reportedly been with Trump since his return to his Bedminster, NJ property in the early hours of July 14, the day after the shooting.
When the subject turned to Cheatle, Jackson told Bartiromo, “She lied to me” during a meeting which took place at the Republican National Convention last week with Trump. “She’s going one way or the other,” Jackson continued. “She lied directly to me; she told me they have not denied any resources.”
On Wednesday evening four Republican senators spotted Cheatle and expressed their outrage over what they saw as her lack of responsiveness to the shooting, demanding answers for Trump and “the American people.”
Earlier the same day in Washington, members of the FBI and Secret Service testified privately to members of Congress about the events of July 13 in Butler, PA.
While last Monday Cheatle told ABC News she had no plans to resign, several House Republicans have floated the idea of reducing her salary to $1 annually if she remains at her post.