A Republican senator who confronted Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle told DailyMail.com that she tried to run away when he asked her about the near-assassination of Donald Trump, while refusing to answer simple questions.
After 20-year-old Thomas Crooks shot former President Donald Trump and fatally shot former firefighter Corey Comperatore at a campaign rally on Saturday, Cheatle has been called upon to resign and multiple investigations into the matter have been announced.
During a phone call Wednesday with Cheatle, FBI Director Christopher Wray and lawmakers, officials revealed that Trump’s security team spotted the shooter 20 minutes before he opened fire.
During that phone call, Cheatle declined to answer questions about why Trump was allowed to take the stage.
A group of senators, including Cramer, took matters into their own hands on Wednesday and cornered Cheatle in a luxury suite at Congress.
When they started demanding answers, she ran away, the senator revealed.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who confronted Cheatle, said she “flew” when he tried to question her about why the Secret Service allowed Donald Trump to take the stage at his campaign rally in Butler when they knew a “suspicious” suspect was at large.
“They excluded us from asking questions about the timing, why Donald Trump was allowed on stage after a threat was reported,” Cramer said of the call.
“So she walked into a suite, and there were a couple of us standing around her, and we said, ‘You know what, we need to talk to her,’” the Republican told DailyMail.com.
“So we went in to ask her that question, and instead of answering the question … she said we should do this somewhere else.”
“We said, ‘Fine, let’s go.’ So she starts to leave. Except she didn’t leave to meet us. She left to run away from us. She ran away.”
According to him, the interaction showed not only a lack of respect for the lawmakers, but also for the country and the world.
The North Dakota woman insisted she has a duty to immediately come clean about what happened at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, but instead she appears to be more focused on “protecting her own behind.”
Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee chased the Secret Service chief across the conference room after she refused to answer their questions
The chase continued up a staircase and only ended when Cheatle locked herself in a bathroom and her own security detail denied the pursuing senators access.
Video of the interaction shows Republican Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and James Lankford of Oklahoma also joining Cramer in demanding answers from Cheatle.
“This is exactly what you did during the conversation,” Cramer could be heard claiming in the clip.
“A blockade,” Barrasso shouted at Cheatle as she walked away from him.
“You almost took his life,” Barrasso said. “So resignation or full explanation.”
Blackburn demanded of the director of the Secret Service: “This was an assassination attempt, you owe the people answers, you owe President Trump answers.”
The footage shows Cheatle walking with what appears to be a security guard who guides her through the intense confrontation.
“I don’t think this is the appropriate forum to have this discussion,” Cheatle told lawmakers.
“This hospitality suite is really to thank the partners who helped secure the Republican National Convention. And I wouldn’t want to take away their evening.”
Cheatle has been under mounting pressure since it emerged that her agents were repeatedly warned about potential assassin Thomas Crooks as he prepared to shoot the president at Saturday’s campaign rally.
Instead of placing her snipers on the roof of the American Glass Research Building in Butler, Pennsylvania, from where Crooks was shooting, she decided to secure the building from the inside.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at the highest point,” she said in an interview explaining why she didn’t send officers to the top of the building.
“So there’s a safety factor that needs to be taken into account. For example, we don’t want someone standing on a sloping roof.”
“It was decided to secure the building from the inside,” she added.
Speaking to ABC News, Cheatle bizarrely claimed that there were no Secret Service snipers on the roof Thomas Crooks used in his attempted assassination of Donald Trump because the roof was “too sloped.”
Cheatle’s decision allowed Crooks to evade police and the Secret Service three times, despite being considered a “suspect” and possibly having been on the roof for as long as 30 minutes before pulling the trigger.
Witnesses also pleaded with police to intervene when they saw him climb onto the roof with his AR rifle, but the lack of security allowed him to carry out his attempt to end the 45th president’s life.
The director of the Secret Service is expected to testify before Congress on Monday about the shooting.