Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said the Secret Service’s briefing to senators on the assassination attempt against former President Trump was “completely worthless.”
He claimed in an interview with Fox News Digital that the information provided to lawmakers on the shooting could be summed up “in two minutes.”
However, “that took them an hour to explain to us.”
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Sen. Roger Marshall criticized a briefing from the Secret Service to senators regarding the assassination attempt against Trump. (Getty Images)
Senators received the briefing on Wednesday, just days after the shooting took place at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left Trump bloodied, with his right ear wounded, one spectator dead, and two others in the hospital.
“Even though the Secret Service administrator takes accountability for the problem, she never says there was a mass failure,” Marshall pointed out.
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Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by Secret Service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
“What we’ve discovered is that there is a huge, cultural issue within the Secret Service,” he alleged. “They’re more focused on [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] than they are focused on their mission and hiring people to do the job.”
According to the Kansas Republican, agency and department briefings have featured fewer questions under Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. It “seems like there’s less questions each time,” he said.
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Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is covered by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
During the agency’s briefing, only four senators were permitted to ask questions, another senator told Fox News Digital.
The information was so minimal that Marshall remarked there wasn’t anything “that wasn’t said on the news the day before.”
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Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is expected to take a proactive role in addressing security issues in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Trump on Saturday. (United States Secret Service)
The Republican senator went as far as to suggest Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle may not even truly know “the details of the investigation.”
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“The director had very minimal comments, and she turned it over to the assistant director, who then described the investigation,” Marshall said.
Whether the assassination attempt was being taken seriously, he said, “I think they’d like to take it seriously, but they’re incompetent.”
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told Fox News Digital in a statement Thursday: “Continuity of operations is paramount during a critical incident and U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has no intentions to step down.”
“She deeply respects members of Congress and is fiercely committed to transparency in leading the Secret Service through the internal investigation and strengthening the agency through lessons learned in these important internal and external reviews.”