The Florida Republican congressman and member of the House Oversight Committee, who shortly after the July 13 assassination attempt on President Donald J. Trump claimed Homeland Security and the Secret Service denied the Trump campaign’s request for a bulkier protection package for the president, today blasted Homeland Security Secretary for dismissing a claim that is now proven to be true.
“Next time you’re going to call me and your own Secret Service agents liars on national TV, make sure that you’re not the one lying to the American people yourself,” said Rep. Michael Waltz, who is a serving Florida National Guard colonel and Special Forces veteran of Afghanistan, in an X-post today.
Next time you’re going to call me and your own Secret Service agents liars on national TV, make sure that you’re not the one lying to the American people yourself. pic.twitter.com/tsb7wDmmOp
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) July 20, 2024
In earlier another X post, Waltz wrote:
Once again Mayorkas has MISLED the public.
On CNN he called my statement that President Trump’s detail was DENIED repeated requests for stronger secret service protection “an irresponsible statement that is unequivocally false.”
Now WaPo is citing officials that I was CORRECT, and that Mayorkas LIED.
Less than four hours after a shooter hit Trump in the right ear during his July 13 rally Butler, Pennsylvania, Waltz wrote on X:
“I have very reliable sources telling me there have been repeated requests for stronger secret service protection for President Trump. Denied by Secretary Mayorkas.”
I have very reliable sources telling me there have been repeated requests for stronger secret service protection for President Trump.
Denied by Secretary Mayorkas. https://t.co/RazOVcJgCk
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) July 14, 2024
Mayorkas went on CNN, where anchor Kate Bolduan asked him directly about Waltz’s charges:
Bolduan: I sincerely appreciate the clarity on this. I did want to ask you; this has popped up Republican Congressman Mike Waltz, he said on social media on Saturday, and I’m going to read this for you because it does talk about you, secretary: “I have very reliable sources telling me that there have been repeated requests for stronger secret service protection for President Trump, denied by Secretary Mayorkas.”
Your department has already pushed back on that calling that absolutely false, but he is putting this on you. Can you respond to that please?
Mayorkas: Well, yeah, that’s a baseless and irresponsible statement and is one that is unequivocally false.
In addition to Mayorkas’ denials, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi also weighed in:
Theres an untrue assertion that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed. This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo
— Anthony Guglielmi (@SecretSvcSpox) July 14, 2024
The Washington Post confirms Waltz’s allegations
In a Washington Post report posted today at 6:48 p.m. by Josh Dawsey and Carol D. Leonnig headlined “Secret Service said to have denied requests for more security at Trump events,” the reporters write that four sources confirmed to them that the Secret Service, which is part of the Homeland Security Department had been routinely denying requests for more security for Trump:
Agents charged with protecting the former president requested magnetometers and more agents to screen attendees at sporting events and other large public gatherings Trump attended, as well as additional snipers and specialty teams at other outdoor events, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive security discussions. The requests, which have not been previously reported, were sometimes denied by senior officials at the agency, who cited various reasons, including a lack of resources at an agency that has long struggled with staffing shortages, they said.
Those rejections — in response to requests that were several times made in writing — led to long-standing tensions that pitted Trump, his top aides and his security detail against Secret Service leadership, as Trump advisers privately fretted that the vaunted security agency was not doing enough to protect the former president.
My RedState colleague Bob Hoge discusses the Secret Service revelation in his piece: “It Just Keeps Getting Worse: Secret Service Reportedly Denied Trump Team’s Requests for More Security.”
Waltz: Fire Cheatle if she does not resign
Waltz has also criticized Kimberly A. Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, the government agency tasked with protecting presidents since 1913.
The colonel told Fox News that Cheatle, who is scheduled to appear before House Oversight Monday, should resign—and he would have fired her already:
“I would’ve fired her just in her botched handling, in dealing with the public.
“Since the assassination attempt, she should have been the very first person to come to the microphones, reassure the public, assure the world that her agency is going to do everything possible to get to the bottom of what happened.”
The congressman said Cheatle’s lack of public engagement was a red flag.
“Clearly, something went wrong, and then I would’ve expected to see her and the FBI director and DHS giving or their representatives, giving daily press conferences, updating the public, letting them know what the latest is,” the former senior national security staffer in the Trump White House said.
Waltz said in an information vacuum, conspiracy theories thrive as people try to make sense of events.
Director Cheadle should be fired just for how badly she’s dealt with the public this week.
NO press conferences, NO on-camera briefings, NO flow of information to the American people.
The public has a RIGHT TO KNOW how someone came within 1/4 inch of killing President Trump! pic.twitter.com/UxIax6IEfd
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) July 20, 2024
The congressman said he had several questions.
“I want to know is clearly there was a breakdown in what they call the advance work that would’ve been done out of the Pittsburgh Secret Service Field Office, and where the sniper was shooting towards that building,” he said.
“How was that obstructed? How did you have dead space where you couldn’t see what the slope was, how was that building outside of the perimeter yet so close,” he said.
“The key question is, were there additional Secret Service resources requested and then denied–because I’m being told by agents directly that more broadly, they’ve been requesting more for President Trump over the last few years, and they’ve been denied.”
(For another perspective on the failures that led to the shooter nearly killing Trump, check out my interview with retired Brig. Gen. Ernest C. Audino: “Retired Army General: ‘Somebody Failed to Appreciate the Militarily Significant Aspects of Terrain.'”)
