Yesterday, Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle appeared before a Congressional Oversight Committee to answer questions about the epic failure to protect former president Donald Trump at his outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.  Her performance under some harsh interrogation was everything we might have expected.  She stonewalled every serious question and denied the Congressional Oversight Committee and the American people any information that would have explained how the July 13 debacle occurred.  Her grade: an F+.  Where did the plus come from?  We’ll get to that.

Republican James Comer chaired the inquiry with ranking Democrat committee member Jamie Raskin.  Congressman Comer stated that the purpose of the hearing was to find answers to the questions regarding the many failures of the Secret Service to protect the former president and to apprehend Thomas Crooks when he was identified as a suspicious person an hour before he fired his rifle from the top of an unguarded rooftop barely 150 yards from the former president’s podium.

Congressman Raskin then use his opening statement to engage in an anti-gun tirade, complete with large, graphic visual aids.  He gave a slight nod to finding answers to questions about the attempted assassination but then pivoted to a full blown, well organized rant condemning the AR-15 and blaming the Congress for not passing stricter controls on “assault rifles,” basically accusing the U.S. Congress of being co-criminals in the attempted assassination of Trump.  Whether or not Director Cheatle provided any answers to questions regarding the security debacle at the Trump rally was inconsequential to him.

Raskin set the tone for his Democrat colleagues.  One by one, they dutifully tried to turn the inquiry into a referendum on gun control and banning “assault rifles” — even though there is no such thing.  The “AR” designation in the name of this popular firearm stands for “Armalite Rifle,” the name of the manufacturer.  It in no way stands for “assault rifle,” which is more disinformation promulgated by the media, Democrats, and the anti-gun lobby.

Democrat congresswoman Eleanor Norton followed suit using her time to denounce a bill that would allow concealed carry in the nation’s capital.  Her one question to Director Cheatle was, “Would Secret Service protectees be safer or less safe if people who had demonstrated a propensity for violence or instability could carry a concealed handgun in D.C.?”

This is where Director Cheatle earned the plus in her F+ grade.  She refused to give Congresswoman Norton the answer she so desperately wanted.  Just as she stonewalled all the Republican questions regarding the botched security for President Trump, she stonewalled all the Democrats’ (mis)leading questions regarding gun control.  Norton stubbornly repeated her question, remembering to mention “large-capacity magazines” in her second attempt.  Each time, Director Cheatle sidestepped the question with generalized and vague answers.

Norton wasn’t the only Democrat to try to trick Cheatle into directly or indirectly supporting gun control.  Democrat Gerry Connolly offered a placating summation of the Secret Service’s successful duties carried out regularly, and then segued into the gun control campaign, specifically citing the AR-15.  At first, he did a “Joe Biden,” completely mixing up his question twice.  It was unintelligible.  He became visibly perturbed, spouting out, “More guns, especially dangerous ones [anyone know of an “undangerous” gun?], have made your job easier.  Is that not right?”  Cheatle sat in silence, looking at him totally perplexed.

Exasperated, Connolly finally managed to straighten out his mangled syntax and said, “More guns, do they make your job more complicated or less complicated...?”  As she did with Congresswoman Norton, she refused to answer Connolly’s question, which he asked several times, his frustration and anger rising visibly.  He hammered her repeatedly, so desperate was he to get her on record speaking out against guns in civilian hands.  To her (albeit limited) credit, Cheatle never capitulated.

As so many have done in congressional hearings over the past year, Cheatle successfully stonewalled every serious question, refusing to provide any details that would illuminate the source of the Secret Service’s miscues and failures in Butler, Pa.  No one would have expected anything different.  Her answers came right out of the same playbook so many federal agency directors have used, consisting mostly of “I can’t speak to the details of an ongoing investigation” and “I don’t have the specifics here, but I’ll be happy to get back with you on that.”  Most accepted her deflections with minimal objections, except for a few, like Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene.  Their condemnation was blistering, but to no avail.

What we have seen over the recent months is evidence of a growing contempt by federal bureaucrats for the congressional committees that are tasked with overseeing their activities.  They refuse to comply or answer questions with impunity, and when they engage in their obvious stonewalling efforts, they do so confident in the knowledge that although they may be embarrassed for a short few hours by stinging questions and accusations in a committee hearing, once it’s over, they will return to their plush offices, fat government salaries, and privileged lifestyles, with no consequences to their positions of power or their careers.

Eric Dawe is an award-winning writer, a chess enthusiast, and the author of two historical novels based on Virgil’s Aeneid: Aeneas, Last King of Troy and Aeneas, Landfall of Legend.

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