Maryland congressman demands resignation of Secret Service director after Trump rally shooting

BALTIMORE — U.S. Congressman Andy Harris, from Maryland, is one of many Republican lawmakers demanding the resignation of U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle following the response to the assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Harris told WJZ that the responsibility of the Secret Service is to make sure every venue is safe and that the agency failed to secure the perimeter last weekend.

Trump was standing at the podium when shots were fired from about 400 feet away. The former president was injured during the gunfire and an attendee was killed and another was injured.

The Secret Service is under investigation following the attempted assassination.

Director Cheatle will testify before Congress next week when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill.

“(Cheatle) insisted that somehow the Secret Service did everything they could, when to the average person, looking at how this occurred, they clearly didn’t do everything they could,” Harris said. “They should’ve never allowed a clear line of fire from someone on a rooftop 130 yards away from the person who is probably going to be president of the United States.”

Republicans back VP pick

The Republican Party is uniting behind Trump’s pick for Vice President, JD Vance, an Ohio Senator, who wrote the novel “Hillbilly Elegy.”

“JD Vance has what it takes again to serve as VP, and God for bid, if he had to, President of the United States,” Harris said.

Harris says a collective sigh of relief was felt across the crowd at the Republican National Convention when Trump entered the arena in Milwaukee for the first time on Monday.

Law enforcement from across the country was called in to assist the Secret Service with security. 

Former Secret Service agent weighs in

Barry Donadio, a former member of the Secret Service for presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, told WJZ that the Secret Service should not be blamed for the attempted assassination of Trump.

“There’s only one person to blame in this whole thing, the man with the gun,” said Donadio, who attended the RNC as an alternate delegate from Maryland. “I saw agents get to the president within literally two seconds. All of them were there and they did exactly what they were supposed to do.” 

Congressman Harris told WJZ that now is the time to unify the nation in the wake of the assassination attempt.