Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) defended her call for both President Joe Biden and U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign from their posts during an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-In-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy on Monday.
On July 13, former President Donald Trump was grazed by a single bullet in his upper right ear in what is formally being investigated as a failed assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The Secret Service has since been under scrutiny for its failure to recognize the threat posed by the would-be assassin in what Cheatle herself has called the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”
Cheatle testified on Monday during a U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing where she failed to provide any specific answers to questions posed by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers about the failed assassination attempt of the former president.
The Secret Service director’s failure to answer lawmakers’ questions on Monday in a formal setting follows her refusal to answer questions posed by Blackburn and other U.S. senators at the Republican National Convention last Wednesday, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star.
Blackburn has since called on Cheatle to resign immediately, saying:
By Director Cheatle’s own admission earlier today, the attempted assassination of President Trump was the ‘most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades. Director Cheatle has clearly shown that she is not up to the task of accomplishing the Secret Service’s zero-fail mission, and she must resign immediately.
On Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Blackburn detailed her viral moment at last week’s Republican National Convention where she confronted Cheatle, explaining how the Secret Service director “chose” to “stonewall” on providing any sort of answers or explanation for the agency’s failure when it comes to the failed assassination attempt of Trump.
“We introduced ourselves, we asked if she could move with us to a quiet place and answer the questions. She chose not to do that. She said she didn’t think it was the time or the place. As I said, ‘It is the time and place because there was an assassination attempt on the former president.’ We wanted to get those answers, and she chose not to give us those answers. When she said she was leaving, we said, ‘We will go with you, we will find a quiet place.’ That did not suit her. She wanted to continue to stonewall, and as I told her, I said, ‘You can run, but you cannot hide.’ And then of course, as people saw on the video, she started to jog or run or whatever to try to get away from us. It’s inappropriate. The American people deserve answers. We were trying to get answers for them,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn added that Cheatle’s refusal to answer questions about her agency’s failure regarding the assassination attempt is not only disrespectful to lawmakers but also to “the American people.”
“We deserve some answers because the people deserve some answers,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn also addressed the news of President Joe Biden abandoning his 2024 reelection campaign on Monday’s show.
Less than an hour after Biden announced his decision to end his reelection campaign, Blackburn called on Biden to resign, saying, “If Joe Biden is too weak to stay in the race for the presidency, he should RESIGN as our Commander-in-Chief immediately.”
Blackburn further explained her thoughts on Biden’s decision during Monday’s show, saying that she found it “very curious” that the president did not address the nation with his decision or post any kind of video or photo with his announcement posted to social media.
“I found it very curious that it was not a video, it was not a picture of the president and first lady making this decision. You got none of that. What you got was one single paper statement followed by another single statement, and we are yet to hear anything or see anything more from them,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn went on to criticize the Biden administration for seemingly covering up Biden’s ability to fulfill the duties as commander-in-chief, noting, “Kamala Harris was a part of that lie.”
“I know that [Biden] has said he will continue to fill out his term and I think that it’s probably a good thing for him to be there and remind the American people every single day that the Democrats lied to them repeatedly about his health. Kamala Harris was a part of that lie. Many of us, you and I included, did not think he was capable in 2020 of carrying out an administration and we have questioned that ability,” Blackburn said.
“We have watched as decisions have seemingly been made by committee, and we have had a part time president from 10 o’clock to 4 o’clock. Those are his working hours. You can’t run a country working part time, and to think that there are people that are unelected that are making decisions – they’re not accountable to anyone, and they’re making these decisions. It is offensive. They have lied about his condition and his abilities. It has caught up with them. They’ve lied to the democratic voters,” Blackburn added.
Blackburn also pointed out the Democratic Party’s undemocratic strategy of pushing Biden out of the presidency despite 14.5 million primary voters casting their vote for him.
“Think about this, what they’re doing is saying, ‘We’re not going to count that primary 14.5 million people that have voted in the Democratic primary. Oh, we’re declaring a do over – your votes don’t count. We’ve decided Joe Biden can’t win, so we’re going to call a do over. We’re going to put a new ticket together. We’ve got all the power, we’ve got the control. So your votes don’t count.’ I think that is very dangerous. We know the danger in negating an election like that and just saying we’re going to rework this,” Blackburn said.
Blackburn concluded by posing the questions, “What’s going to happen when they find out Kamala Harris is not polling well, that she polls worse than Joe Biden? And you can look at the polls, and she does not poll well. So what’s going to happen then? Are they going to declare another do over and try to put a different candidate up?”
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Sen. Marsha Blackburn” by Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
