The Daily Signal - BONUS: Sen. Kevin Cramer Confronts Secret Service Director at RNC

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

Sen. Kevin Cramer joins The Daily Signal Podcast after confronting the Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is a daily signal bonus episode from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. I'm Virginia Allen. A number of senators chased down the director of the Secret Service here at the Republican National Convention to ask her questions about the failure to keep former President Donald Trump safe during a campaign rally on Saturday. And ultimately, of course, we know that led to an assassination attempt on the former president. president's life. Well, Senator Kevin Kramer was one of those senators that confronted the director of the Secret Service here at the RNC, and Rob Bluey sits down with the senator to talk about what were the questions that he asked the director of the Secret Service and what responses he received. Stay tuned for their conversation after this.

This is Rob Bluey from The Daily Signal. Looking for a podcast that cuts through the noise and delivers on a podcast. truthful and conservative perspectives, check out the Daily Signal podcast. Each weekday, we bring you interviews with policymakers on the issues that matter most. From breaking down complex legislation to exposing media bias,

we're committed to giving you the facts that you won't hear from the establishment media. Subscribe now to the Daily Signal podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen. The Daily Signal is back from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We're joined now by North Dakota Senator Kevin Kramer.

Thank you so much for being with us, sir. My pleasure. Good to be with you. I love Daily Signal. Well, thank you. And you yourself have had a bit of a viral moment in the past 24 hours or so. When you decided with three of your Senate colleagues to ask some tough questions of the Secret Service Director,

can you tell us what transpired last night in the FISA Forum? I'm happy to, starting with, they weren't tough questions. They were really easy questions. It's just evidently the answer is not so easy. some reason. So to give some context to this, you know, we were all on the call yesterday with the FBI director, Christopher Ray and the Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheedel and their deputies, expecting a very thorough walkthrough, realizing it's unclassified. So, but a thorough walkthrough of the events of that

day and the investigation since. So it started out with Kimberly Cheeto, welcoming everybody, thanking them, assuring them that the Secret Services swell in America is great, and we're committed to a perfect mission that we failed on, and then turned it over to her deputy. After all of the briefing was done, they opened the phones for questions, and there were three Democrats and one Republican

that asked questions or made points or statements, and that was followed by, that's all we have time for. and there were a whole bunch of us in the queue with the, what I believe is at some version of the easiest question, you walk through the timeline, we know now that for at least 20 minutes, you knew of a potential threat on a rooftop, 150 yards away from the stage,

you identified and then notified the counter-sniper unit of this potential threat, and then you let Donald Trump get on stage. why did the Secret Service not keep Donald Trump from going on that stage knowing there was a potential threat 150 yards away? Simple question, she didn't want to answer it on the phone, and she darned she didn't want to answer it in person last night. That's right. Well, so you, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator James Langford, and Senator John Barrasso were all there. Walk us through what that experience was like because it seemed like she was trying every which way to get away from you.

I would answer that question. So we learned, somebody saw her go into this suite. And we're on the suite level. So we just happened to be in, you know, proximity to one another. And we thought, well, there she is. Now we can ask her. And so we walk in politely, introduce ourselves, and then started asking the obvious question. And I'm pretty mild-mannered, as you probably know.

And I reserve judgment probably longer than a lot of people do. I like to get facts. But we were already a little irritated by the stonewalling. And she right away said this isn't the appropriate place to talk about this. She goes somewhere else. I'm here to honor local law enforcement for their contribution to helping keep the RNC safe. And we're thinking, I'm not sure they are feeling all that honored by your presence, but thanks for the effort. And she said, so really it would be better to do this someplace else.

We said, great. Where do you want to go? What time should we meet you? Let's go outside right now. There's space out here. She said, yeah, I'm leaving right now. And he said, great, let's go. So she starts walking out, and her detail follows her, and we follow her, and pretty soon she's not just leaving. She's running. And she starts, you know, moving quickly through this mezzanine where people are just trying to enjoy a hot dog or, you know, a soda between speeches. And she's moving faster and faster and faster. And pretty soon, we, we, we, we're just trying to enjoy a hot dog or a hot dog or, or, you know, we're going to be a soda. starting to, we're clearly getting very loud voice saying, what are you doing? You're stonewalling.

Senator Brassel kept saying stonewalling. I said, and I said something to the effect that, you know, you owe answers to us. You're accountable to us for information. Then she gets on an escalator or stairway starts going up, up that. We follow her up that. The pace is picking up, and pretty soon she's heading for a white wall with a door in it. And we got to that door. And I literally was still thinking we're going to go in maybe.

And I actually put my hand in the door. And pretty soon she gets through and the Secret Service agent is starting to push it shut. And I'm thinking, I'm already, you know, I've already injured one finger in the last couple of years. I don't want another one. And so I looked at the officer and said, so that's it? He said, that's it. And I said, wow, I did say at the time, Donald Trump should have had this good as security. Yeah, right.

Well, I guess if you're the Secret Service Director, you have those privileges. Those pesky senators, you know, they can be a real pain. That's right. But I think that's why the American people sent you to Washington, you know, and to represent them and to get answers to those types of questions. So first of all, I just want to make sure all of our viewers know that we have the footage on DailySignal.com. So you can go and read the story and about all of the details at DailySignal.com and see what the senator is talking about with your own eyes.

I mean just what I think one New York Times reporter described as a surreal moment at the Republican National Convention. But let's look ahead. So Congress comes back to Washington, D.C. What are your expectations? Because there will be a moment where I believe the FBI director has already been scheduled to testify before Congress. So do you expect to get these answers in a forum where she won't be able to escape?

Well, it's a great point because the House has already, you know, subpoenas or called her to testify. The Senate is run by Democrats. I wouldn't expect Chuck Schumer's is quite as anxious. Although it was a Democratic Senate. on the phone call that really admonished her to be forthcoming with information quickly to help restore the confidence, the lack of confidence, really, that people have in the agency. She's sort of committed to that, but clearly isn't committed to that.

And so I think it's going to be hard for Democrats not to want to get her in front of them as well because they need to project concern here as well. Joe Biden has said he supports an independent investigation. She herself said, I've called for it. an internal investigation, which is, you know, sure. Okay. Anyway, and so, yeah, I hope to get those answers. I hope to at least get the opportunity for the appropriate committees to ask the questions. I'm not overly confident, quite honestly.

There is something they're not telling us. They are clearly stonewalling intentionally, and they'll have to work on their spin for sure. My more important, I think, expectation is that she'll no longer be the director. I don't see after what she pulled last night in front of cameras and lots of witnesses. I don't see how she survives, you know, even this afternoon. Yeah, seems that the days are numbered. It sure seems like it. I will say this, the surreal moment really wasn't us chasing her.

It was us coming back through the same area and getting sort of this heroes, you know, welcome. Like we did something great and I didn't, I missed it. But they were very, people were very appreciative. Oh, I think people are appreciative. Well, and I think it goes to the heart of the loss of trust that the American people have with the Department of Justice, with the FBI. And it's in many ways sad that you have these institutions that for many years the American people could count on and now they don't have that faith.

How do they restore that trust? It's really hard. I'm not kidding. You put your finger right on it. It's all of the institutions of government. It's the bureaucracy in general. I think the way you restore the trust, though, is by transparency. And this was the moment that she missed.

This was the opportunity she bungled. Sure, there was clearly a security bungling in Butler, Pennsylvania. But they continue with the same mistakes because they think you and I, as regular people, are to be protected by their superiority as liberals. And we should just shut up and appreciate the fact that they're looking out for us. No respect for the people that elect the elected officials or that pay the tax, and pay the salaries of appointed officials. So the restoration of the institutions is really critical.

I would encourage people if they really want to read about the potential of this history and then what can come of it. Go back and read Abraham Lincoln's speech that he gave when he was a 26-year-old lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, known as the Lyceum speech. He warned about this. He warned about mob rule taking over when the institutions, the confidence in institutions drops. We're experiencing that.

We have to restore it. And it starts, I think, with transparency. Yeah, no, that's a great point. I'd be remiss to not ask you about how things are going back home in North Dakota. Thank you for spending so much time talking about the situation with the Secret Service. But obviously, your state has had the spotlight on it for the last several weeks as your governor was one of the finalists for vice president. It's given you an opportunity perhaps to shine the spotlight on some of the great things that are happening back home. What can you tell us about it that's on the mind of your?

constituents. So it's really interesting. Governor Bergam did a great job running for president. He did a great job representing North Dakota on the big stage. There's no question about that. And he's such a North Dakota patriot. He knows every corner of the state. But what's really special about Doug and the opportunity he had, especially a couple of nights ago, I guess it was last night actually that he was at the convention and spoke was to highlight North Dakota's excellence in energy development and energy production. And the contrast of a Biden administration and a Trump administration in the arena of not just energy production, but environmental stewardship, job creation, inflation, reduction, all of the things that energy can provide for us.

And so North Dakota's right now, they're greatly concerned about the southern border like everybody is, because they see it not just as an assault, but just a really bad symbol of what's going on in this country. But they're also really concerned about the cost of things. And they understand as a state that produces more food than we can consume so we feed a hungry world, a state that produces more energy than we can begin to consume, even if we put all the AI serving farms in the world in North Dakota, we can still provide them electricity except that Joe Biden won't let us.

And so they're concerned about regulatory policies and the overbearing weight of the federal government on everything that we do so excellently. and they're really anxious to get Joe Biden out and Donald Trump in. Well, Senator Kevin Kramer, we appreciate the work that you do in the U.S. Senate and the fact that you do represent those values of freedom and liberty that I think the American people so cherish. And so a lot is at stake in the months to come, and we look forward to keeping in touch with you. I look forward to that as well. And I always, always watch Daily Signal, read DailySignal, follow your news feeds.

It's really good stuff. so thank you for what you do. Absolutely. Well, check them out. Senator Kevin Kramer from the great state of North Dakota. Well, that's going to do it for today's bonus episode. Thanks so much for catching so much of our content here

from the Republican National Convention. If you want more interviews like this, be sure to check out the Daily Signal YouTube channel where you can catch all of our episodes from the Republican National Convention. Thanks for being with us today. We will see you right back here on Friday for our interview edition.

And, of course, for top news at the end of the day. The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Lewy and Katrina Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, Mary Margaret O'Lohan, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, John Pop, and Joseph Vons Becalf.