Secret Service fail: Director Kim Cheatle must go
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s appearance before the House Oversight Committee on Monday to answer questions about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump was a disaster. The 27 year veteran of the agency was obstructive and defensive bordering on the contemptuous in answers to questions from members of both parties.She frequently refused or failed to answer many of them.
Cheatle’s testimony came after she made an appearance on the floor of the Republican National Convention last week, where she was cornered by four Republican senators, including Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. The senators fired angry questions at her demanding how the Secret Service, the agency she heads, had failed to protect the Republican candidate for president daysbefore. She did not answer their questions and stood there like a robot whose motherboard had shorted out.
At issue, of course, was the near-miss assassination attempt by a 20-year-old lone gunman on Donald Trump at an outdoor rally on July 13. By now, dozens of diagrams and aerial photographs have been published showing the line of sight the shooter had from the rooftop of a nearby agricultural building to the rally stage. The distance was estimated at 150 yards, an easy shot even for a shooter with limited rifle training. The shooter was said to be using an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle made by Defense Procurement Manufacturing Services (DPMS) bought by his father in 2013. DPMS was one of the first civilian manufacturers of rifles based on the military’s M-16 rifle. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, (EFGS) a gun control group formed after the school shooting at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, a DPMS AR-15 rifle was used in the mass shooting in San Bernadino, CA, in 2015. Fourteen people were killed and 22 were wounded in that shooting.
DPMS was bought by Palmetto State Armory, a gun manufacturer that has specialized in mass-marketing AR-15 style rifles to the public. The company currently has a “Christmas in July” sale on its website, offering e kits that can be used to assemble so-called “ghost guns” to get around federal firearms regulations, in addition to any number of already-manufactured models of AR-15s. In the past, the company has posted images of children holding AR-15s on its Facebook page with captions reading, “Raise them right!” and “This is what we do!” according to EFGS. Palmetto Arms AR-15s were used in mass shootings in Jacksonville, Florida, and St. Louis, Missouri. An AR-15 manufactured by the Lead Star Arms company, which is sold by Palmetto Arms, was used in the Convent School shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.
This is an excerpt from my weekly Salon column. To read the full column, follow this link:
The irony of course is without the gun (?phallic) love of the 2nd Amendment fanatics (??where are the well-regulated armed militias?) and corrupt Alito-Thomas court, AR15s etc would not be available. Perhaps the GOP should look at their role in the weaponizing of America.
Thanx as always. I would suggest the assassination still be referred to as “alleged,” since we have no medical records or ballistics documentation tying Crooks’ weapon to Donald’s ear.
That alleged shot was perfect for Trump, both physically and politically. That’s amazing, if it happened, and sure, it may have.
But they gotta prove it as best they are able.
Because without a doubt: we are dealing with a world-class huckster/psychopath. So, every unproven fact T/his Crew spew must be challenged at this time, until proven to a reasonable degree.
Otherwise, if journalists/all of us let T skate on shaky facts/presumptions now, we will all have no shot at doing so if he ascends to reigning King in January 2025.