MILWAUKEE — The embattled U.S. Secret Service chief can run, but she can’t hide from the agency’s fatal failures leading up to and in the moment of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., tells me that there must be consequences if Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle doesn’t appear Monday before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee as ordered.
“She’s subpoenaed, and I would say if she does not show up, we bring her in — by force if necessary,” said Burchett, a member of the Oversight Committee.
Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on Wednesday issued the subpoena to the recalcitrant Secret Service director.
“Americans demand accountability and transparency about the Secret Service’s failures that led to the attempted assassination of President Trump, but they aren’t getting that from President Biden’s Department of Homeland Security,” Comer said in a statement. “We have many questions for Director Cheatle about the Secret Service’s historic failure and she must appear before the House Oversight Committee next week.”
But the Biden administration hasn’t been good at obeying congressional subpoenas, even as the Justice Department goes about throwing conservatives in jail for doing the same. (See former Trump aide Peter Navarro and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.)
‘You’re Supposed to Protect the President’
Cheatle has refused to step down as Republicans demand that Biden fire the evasive security chief. Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday said he was “prepared” to call on the president to sack Cheatle.
Sens. John Barrasso,
