Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal called for new leadership for the Secret Service, saying “the responsibility rests squarely on Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.”
His comments came in the wake of a new bipartisan Senate report detailing failures in CIA leadership following the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“The responsibility certainly rests with Secretary of Homeland Security Alexander Mayorkas, who must take responsibility for cleaning up, replacing this leadership and providing the full disclosure that the department has thus far been stymied by,” Blumenthal told CNN.
Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who is leading the subcommittee investigation, said there is a clear lack of leadership and that the head of the Secret Service needs to be replaced.
“Whether it’s a football team, a battalion in the military or a company, there has to be someone in charge. There was no one in charge on the ground in Pennsylvania on the day of the assassination,” he said. “There’s a lack of command and a clear lack of leadership. We need a complete overhaul of management — not just personnel, but Secret Service policies and practices.”
Meanwhile, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, and Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, also cited a lack of accountability within the Secret Service in their reports.
“There was unanimous bipartisan support that the assassination could have been prevented, that there were multiple failures by the Secret Service, and that things must be done better,” Paul told reporters Wednesday morning.
Paul has called for cuts within the Secret Service, arguing that the Secret Service’s budget increase in the government’s budget extension would not solve the problem, but Peters said cuts should be held off until more information is known.
The Chair also noted that this was an interim report, stressing that the full report would be released at a later date.
This post has been updated with additional reporting.