TIMMONS: OK. So I am going to go over the Trump event. So, this was publicly announced July 3 Butler, Pennsylvania. The venue is an outdoor fairground, open air, no existing security. The crowd size is -- was expected to be tens of thousands. It ended up being over 20,000.
There were general and specific threats from foreign adversaries, as the chairman of Intelligence remarked. Iran has said they want revenge, as well as, when President Trump was in office, he made a lot of people mad, terrorists to be included, all over the world. And President Trump is the former president and the future president.
So I would say that that is a fairly high-risk event. Would you agree?
CHEATLE: Yes.
TIMMONS: OK, let's conversely -- the first lady had an event at a casino in Pittsburgh just a few dozen miles away. It was a dinner for the Italian Sons and Daughters of America. It was publicly announced on July 10.
What's interesting is that the casino is actually extremely secure. They already have magnetometers existing prior to this event even being announced. It was in a ballroom, and the size of the crowd, a mere 400. There were no specific threats. There may have been general threats. And the asset is the first lady.
Those seem like there's a huge disparity relative to risk. Would you agree?
CHEATLE: Yes.
TIMMONS: OK, thank you.
Multiple whistle-blowers in various media outlets have reported that the Pittsburgh field office of the Secret Service allocated 12 additional post standers to the first lady's event and three additional post standers to the Trump rally. Is that correct?
[13:10:03]
CHEATLE: There were no assets that were diverted from the first lady's visit.
TIMMONS: No, no, no, no, this is a very simple question. I'm not asking if anyone was diverted.
Did the first lady's event that was relatively secure, especially compared to Trump's rally, get 12 assets, and the first lady -- did the first ladies event get 12 assets and Trump's get three from the Pittsburgh field office?
That's a yes-or-no question.
CHEATLE: The number --
TIMMONS: If you don't know, don't answer it. I mean, if you don't know, don't answer it.
CHEATLE: The number of personnel that were allocated to both of those events were comparable to the risk at both of those events.
TIMMONS: Wow. Really? So you think that the Pittsburgh casino 400- person in a ballroom with ingress-egress through probably a very well- guarded parking garage was four times more dangerous than a 20,000- person rally in open field with the former president and future president?
You think that that's four times more dangerous, the casino event?
CHEATLE: I didn't say that at all.
TIMMONS: Well, they got four times the resources from the Pittsburgh field office, who was likely in charge of the final walk-through for both events.
I mean, we have continually highlighted the failures of the Secret Service at the Trump rally. And you have the former and future president getting shot. You have multiple injuries, one fatality. And I would have to think that, if we had nine more post standers, nine more individuals that have the training and the integration into the Secret Service defense of Trump at that rally, that I have a feeling that Crooks would have had somebody come say hello to him before he fired a bunch of shots.
What -- do you think that's possibly true?
CHEATLE: There were significantly more assets and resources available at the former president's event than there were at the first lady's event.
TIMMONS: Who made the decision to deploy 12 post standers to the casino, where the first lady was having a 400-person dinner, and only three people from the Pittsburgh field office to the 20,000-plus -- person-plus Trump rally? Who made that decision?
CHEATLE: There were additional Secret Service resources available at the former President Trump's event that day.
TIMMONS: Who made the decision to deploy 12 post standers to the casino and three to the Trump event?
CHEATLE: The allocation of resources is decided based on the availability of personnel and their location and where they are, but there were sufficient resources that were given --
TIMMONS: What did you just say?
CHEATLE: -- given to former president's event that day.
TIMMONS: Did you just say there were sufficient resources? President Trump got shot. Someone got killed. There were not sufficient resources, clearly.
CHEATLE: There was a gap.
TIMMONS:
And it doesn't take 27 years of experience to know that. And whoever made that decision -- it probably wasn't you -- needs to be fired. And then you need to resign, because this is absolutely unacceptable and you have lost the trust of the American people.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield.