Kimberly Cheatle has resigned as director of the Secret Service. She leaves an agency in disarray and a nation still needing answers to a basic question: How did 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks get within an inch of assassinating former president Donald Trump on July 13, with potentially catastrophic consequences for U.S. political stability?
Ms. Cheatle had her chance to provide some clarity about that awful day in Butler, Pa., at a congressional hearing Monday, but she stonewalled. “There is still an ongoing investigation,” was her repeated response to pertinent questions from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. No wonder a hearing that began with bipartisan curiosity ended with bipartisan outrage — and calls for her to step down.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray did better in his appearance before a different House committee Wednesday, providing at least some new information. Mr. Wray revealed that, before the Trump rally, Crooks had searched for details about the John F. Kennedy assassination. He had used a rifle with a collapsible stock, which likely made the weapon more difficult for law enforcement to spot before he had it fully set up. The Post has also reported that the slope of the roof from which the shooter fired likely blocked him from the view of some law enforcement personnel.
Still, none of this explains why officials put the building outside the Trump rally’s official security perimeter. Nor does it tell us why local police, responsible for security outside the perimeter, did not station anyone on the roof. How, exactly, did the would-be assassin get onto the roof and remain there, armed with a rifle, for several minutes?
Congressional testimony from Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris on Tuesday filled in only a few details. Two officers with the Butler County Emergency Services Unit were on a nearby building and spotted the suspicious 20-year-old. At some point, one or possibly both officers went to search for Crooks and notified other law enforcement, including the Secret Service. A local police officer did attempt to confront Crooks on the roof shortly before he began firing, but the officer was merely being hoisted up by colleagues and was “dangling” from the edge when the shooter pointed his gun at him and the officer dropped back down.
The timeline remains murky. But it’s clear law enforcement, including the Secret Service, were watching Crooks long before Mr. Trump took the stage. And it appears likely Crooks had been flagged as a threat before the Republican candidate went to the lectern. Hence the most troubling question of all: Why didn’t the Secret Service cancel — or at least postpone — Mr. Trump’s speech?
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One of President Biden’s most important tasks in what remains of his term is to nominate a new Secret Service director. He needs to do so with dispatch but also due concern for what’s at stake. A stellar appointment would go a long way toward achieving what Mr. Biden has declared as the top goal of his presidency: preserving democracy. There can be no democracy where assassins kill those running for, or holding, public office. The situation calls for a nominee with deep operational expertise and bipartisan appeal. It’s a moment for someone with proven credentials as an organizational turnaround specialist.
Meanwhile, the Secret Service’s interim leadership has to do better than Ms. Cheatle did in telling the full story of what went wrong on July 13. Difficult as it may be, the agency should also strive to let presidential candidates hold more rallies. One hopes the Secret Service’s recommendation that the Trump campaign cease holding outdoor rallies is only a temporary necessity and not a permanent change of the agency’s philosophy. Democracy works best when people can safely get close to those who would lead them.
Conspiracy theories about July 13 are already making the rounds on the internet — another reason to get the full truth out, and sooner rather than later. The House voted 416-0 Wednesday to create a bipartisan task force to investigate the assassination attempt, with subpoena power and a mandate to report by Dec. 13. The Secret Service needs to cooperate fully with that probe, as well as with the investigation already launched by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, and get to work on plans to make sure such a disaster can’t happen again.
