Secret Service admits Trump assassination attempt was worst operational failure in decades

Nine days after a 20-year-old gunman wielding his father’s AR-15 assault-style rifle shot and wounded Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, lawmakers grilled U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle over her agency’s apparent inability to head off the attempt on the former president’s life.

The tense hearing at times veered into outright hostility, with one GOP legislator calling Cheatle “full of s***.”

In her opening statement, Cheatle, a 27-year veteran of the Secret Service, told members of the House Oversight Committee, “The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13 is the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades, and I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts.”

Cheatle told the panel that she takes “full responsibility for any security lapse,” and said she will “move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again.”

“Our agents, officers and support personnel understand that every day we are expected to sacrifice our lives to execute a no-fail mission,” Cheatle testified.

Former federal agents have since ripped the agency for allowing the shooting to occur.

U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican committee chair, told Cheatle that he believes she should resign over the incident, which he called “one of the darkest days in American political history.”

“However, in complete defiance, Director Cheadle has maintained she will not tender her resignation," Comer went on. “Therefore, she will answer questions today from members of this committee seeking to provide clarity to the American people about how these events were allowed to transpire.”

Others, including Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, on Monday joined