Trump shooting puts Secret Service under scrutiny

Secret Service Director Kimberly Chittel told ABC News on Monday that she does not plan to resign, rejecting calls from lawmakers to step down following the assassination of former President Donald Trump.

“I do intend to stay on,” Chittel said in an interview that aired Monday night on ABC News’ “World News Tonight.”

this Private service Pressure is mounting to explain what happened in the hours and minutes before gunmen tried to assassinate the former president Donald Trump in his Pennsylvania Rally Saturday.

One attendee was killed and two were seriously wounded before a sniper shot and killed 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks on the roof of a building about 400 feet from the rally stage.

“The responsibility is ultimately mine,” she said. “I am the director of the Secret Service and I have to make sure we are doing the vetting and providing the resources to our personnel as needed.”

Chittle told ABC News that there was a “very short period of time” between Crooks being identified as a potential suspect and him opening fire, and she said local police were “responsible for securing the perimeter of the building,” where Crooks opened fire from the rooftop.

Despite calls from some, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and former Attorney General Bill Barr, for Chittel to resign, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Monday he has “100 percent confidence” in the Secret Service director.

“The Secret Service is working with all relevant federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, why, and how to prevent this from happening again,” Chittel said in a statement Monday.

Chittel said despite Saturday’s shooting, the Secret Service would not significantly change security plans for the Republican National Convention, which will be held Monday through Thursday.

“I have confidence in the security plan that the Secret Service Republican National Committee coordinator and our partners have put in place, which we reviewed and enhanced following Saturday’s shooting,” Chittel said.

On Sunday, Secret Service Republican National Committee coordinator Audrey Gibson-Cicchino also supported the convention’s security plan, which she said was 18 months in the making and was given the highest level of security.

She added that guns were not allowed at the convention venue or within the wider security perimeter of the Secret Service.

However, Wisconsin is an open-carry state, meaning guns are only allowed a few blocks from the Republican National Committee and outside of the Secret Service cordon.

The FBI is still conducting a post-mortem investigation into the Trump rally.

According to an update on Monday, the FBI completed a search of Crokes’ residence and vehicle and has conducted nearly 100 interviews so far with law enforcement, rally attendees and other witnesses.

FBI officials said Sunday they currently believe the gunman acted alone.

FBI experts have obtained Crooks’ cellphone information and are analyzing his electronic devices. A senior U.S. law enforcement official told NBC News on Monday that based on a preliminary analysis of Crooks’ phone, the FBI still does not have enough information to determine his motive.

President Joe Biden also directed an independent review to cooperate with the FBI’s criminal investigation.

As the investigation continues and questions linger, donations are pouring in to support the victims of the shooting, including from high-dollar donors.

Online Fundraising Events As of Monday, the Trump campaign’s relief fund for victims had raised $4 million from more than 50,000 donors. Top donors include Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, who donated twice for a total of $100,000, a Citadel spokesperson confirmed to CNBC. Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackman also confirmed to CNBC that he had donated $10,000.

“We have mobilized the full power of the FBI into this investigation,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a call with reporters on Sunday. “The American people can be assured that we will leave no stone unturned in getting to the bottom of this.”

The Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies were asked about potential security lapses that may have led to Saturday’s shooting.

Late Monday, all 10 Republican senators in the Senate Senate Judiciary Committee In a letter to the committee chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., requested a public congressional hearing with Chittel, Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

They are the latest in a growing number of lawmakers to call on law enforcement officials to come clean about what happened at Saturday’s rally.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, on Saturday asked Chittel to testify at a congressional hearing on Monday, July 22.

“There are a lot of questions, and Americans need answers,” Cuomo said in a statement. Saturday evening statementjust hours after the shooting.

Cuomo was followed by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., who said he would launch an investigation into how the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security coordinate security procedures.

“The severity of this security lapse and the chilling moment in our nation’s history cannot be underestimated,” Green wrote in a letter to Secretary Mayorkas on Sunday.

Greene’s letter also repeated a rumor that the Department of Homeland Security rejected Trump’s request for additional security resources in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s rally, a claim that both the Secret Service and Mayorkas have strongly denied.

“That is an unequivocal false assertion,” Mayorkas told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday. “We have had increased security for the former president since at least June. We have not received any requests for increased security that have been denied.”