Speaker Mike Johnson demands Secret Service director RESIGN over 'inexcusable' lapses that led to Trump being shot on stage

The Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., wants the Director of the Secret Service to resign after former president Donald Trump was shot at a campaign rally on Saturday under her watch.

The rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, resulted in the shooting of the former president and the murder of former firefighter Corey Comperatore despite a massive Secret Service presence. 

'I’m going to call for a resignation,' for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, Johnson said on Fox News Wednesday morning. 'Look, I think it's inexcusable.'

Johnson also revealed he is setting up a bipartisan task force to investigate the shooting. 

He said the special task force would be a 'precision strike' to get to the bottom of how a former president and current presidential candidate could have been so easily targeted. 

The Speaker of the House Mike Johnson , R-La., wants the Director of the Secret Service to resign after former president Donald Trump was shot at a campaign rally on Saturday under her watch

'I'll be setting up on Monday a task force a special task force within the House,' Johnson said. 'And the reason we're going to do it that way is because that is a more precision strike.'

Johnson explained that the task force would go quicker than setting up a select committee, saying there will be less 'procedural hurdles' that way.

'It goes quicker, there's not a lot of the procedural hurdles and we'll have subpoena authority for that task force as well.' 

The speaker said subpoena power for the task force is imperative because Biden administration officials could try to intervene.

Specifically, Republicans are worried that  Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas - who is Cheatle's boss - could step in to avoid her appearing before the Oversight Committee on Monday.

'We're hearing rumblings this morning that Mayorkas may not allow her to attend,' Johnson said. 

United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is expected to testify before Congress next week 

Donald Trump pumps his fist after getting shot as his Secret Service escort him away from the podium during his Butler, PA rally on Saturday 

Cheatle is also expected to appear before the House Homeland Security Committee next week.

Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray have also been invited to testify before that panel. 

'It is imperative that we partner to understand what went wrong, and how Congress can work with the departments and agencies to ensure this never happens again,' the committee's chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said in a statement announcing the meeting.

But despite Mayorkas and Wray getting tied up in the tragic ordeal, ultimately Cheatle is responsible for the former president's security. 

'Obviously the buck does stop at her desk,' he said. 

Within hours of the shooting, the speaker had a phone call with Mayorkas to discuss the horrific event. 

'He did not have satisfactory answers at that time,' Johnson said of the secretary's briefing. 

The Butler Farm Show, site of a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump

Secret Service snipers stand guard over former President Trump just before he was shot

Image of shooting suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks

U.S. Secret Service agents surround the stage as other agents cover Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally,

New footage shows the Secret Service protecting Trump while escorting him out of the rally

The Republican also disclosed that he had spoken with top brass at the FBI and the National Security Council about the assassination attempt in Butler. 

'Let's just put it that way, the answers have not been forthcoming,' he said of the conversations. 

'I think they're gathering data,' he continued. 'We're going to do it as well.'

'We have to have accountability for this. It was inexcusable.'

The DHS Inspector General is also conducting an internal investigation into the assassination attempt.