‘This Relationship Is Irretrievable’: Raskin Demands Cheatle Resign Post-Trump Assassination Attempt

2 months ago

During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) gave closing remarks about the Secret Service's failures after the assassination attempt against former President Trump.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Mr. Chairman and Director Chito, I also want to thank you for your patience over the course

00:07of what must have been a very long and trying hearing for you.

00:14It has been an unusually encouraging hearing and an unusually depressing hearing.

00:19And what's encouraging, Mr. Chairman, is that we came together to issue a strong statement

00:24deploring and categorically denouncing political violence in America.

00:30And I also didn't see any daylight between the members of the two parties today at the

00:35hearing in terms of our bafflement and outrage about the shocking operational failures that

00:41led to disaster and near catastrophe on July 13, 2024.

00:49What is depressing is the extraordinary communications gap between the Director of the Secret Service

00:55and Congress.

00:58And I don't want to add to the Director's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

01:06But I will be joining the Chairman in calling for the resignation of the Director just because

01:12I think that this relationship is irretrievable at this point.

01:18And I think that the Director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and

01:24tender moment in the history of the country.

01:27And we need to very quickly move beyond this.

01:30But what I will say, Mr. Chairman, is that I took this hearing to be about two major

01:35policy failures.

01:36And one policy failure is the one that got the vast majority of the attention, which

01:41was the failure of the Secret Service to effectively respond to a gunman on a roof

01:49within 150 yards of a presidential visit and speech.

01:58But the other failure is on the part of Congress, because the mass shooting that took place

02:04in Butler, Pennsylvania, is replicated all over the country every day.

02:10And in fact, as I said, Mr. Chairman, it happened that evening in Alabama, in Birmingham, Alabama,

02:18where there was a mass shooting, where more people even were killed and wounded than were

02:22killed and wounded in Butler, Pennsylvania.

02:24So it's true, the President, the former President, and a handful of people who get the Secret

02:29Service protection are the only people in America we thought were safe from an AR-15

02:35attack.

02:36It's clear that they're not safe either.

02:38And we've got to get to the bottom of that.

02:40But we also have to get to the bottom of the larger problem, which is that the whole country

02:45is living like this in fear and in terror of assault weapon attacks in movie theaters,

02:52churches, synagogues, mosques, supermarkets, Walmarts, you know, any place where an audience

03:01or a public gathers.

03:03And the worst was in Las Vegas, where a gunman got up on a roof and then just mowed down

03:0960 people below him and wounded hundreds and hundreds of other people.

03:15So we've got to deal with that problem.

03:18Yes, we've got to move as swiftly as we can to deal with the problems of the Secret Service.

03:23But the broader problem is still there.

03:27And I just wish to the heavens that our colleagues that could get together on the question of

03:35presidential security against an AR-15 attack could get together on the question of public

03:41security against an AR-15 attack, because all of us are vulnerable.

03:47All of our families are in danger by this.

03:50And the rest of the world doesn't live this way.

03:52And we have to look to see how uniquely strange it is that we allow 20-year-olds to access

03:59AR-15s, weapons of mass destruction, and show up in public places to endanger other people.

04:06And I hope, Mr. Chairman, we can work together on that with the same spirit of bipartisan

04:11commitment to the public safety that was exemplified here today.

04:15And I yield back to you.

04:16The Ranking Member yields back.

04:18I'll deliver my closing remarks.

04:21Mr. Cheadle, I've subpoenaed you.

‘This Relationship Is Irretrievable’: Raskin Demands Cheatle Resign Post-Trump Assassination Attempt

Category

Transcript

Recommended