The following is the transcript of an interview with Sen. Rand Paul, Democrat of Kentucky, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on July 13, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to the Chair of the Homeland Security Committee, Senator Rand Paul, who joins us from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. RAND PAUL: Thank you. Thank you for having
MARGARET BRENNAN: Today is the one-year mark since then-candidate Trump was shot at in Butler, Pennsylvania. You have released an Accountability Report, we've had a look at it, and it details that assets were requested by the Secret Service, including requests made over the phone, and they were denied. You also say that the former Secret Service director made false claims under oath when Kimberly Cheadle said there were no denials. Was she misled, or are you accusing her of lying?
SEN. PAUL: She did not tell the truth. She said that there were no assets that were requested in advance. We found at least four occasions, actually, maybe five occasions, where requests were made. The primary request that was made by both Trump's Secret Service detail, as well as his campaign was for counter-snipers. Counter-snipers were denied until Butler. So, thank God, on that day in Butler County, Pennsylvania, that was the first time he was allowed counter-snipers. If he had not had counter-snipers, that assassin would have popped up again- he did pop up again to continue firing, and that's when he was taken out. But, thank God we had the counter-snipers there. But why were they denied for months and months? When they finally did ask for them, they mysteriously, magically appeared. They found them where they needed them. They just weren't trying hard enough. So, it was a cascade of errors. It was just one error after another. When we talked to the people in charge of security, everybody pointed a finger at someone else. We said, who was responsible for that roof, the roof where the assassin lay with a direct sight line. Nobody wanted responsibility. Everybody said it was somebody else. There was plenty of time to take him off the stage. The suspicious person with the range finder who became the shooter, many times he was spotted by police with suspicion. That should have been enough to take the president off the stage. Even with him on the roof, there was about a three-minute period when he could have been taken from the stage. And yet, no one was fired. Some of these people could be in charge of security for another presidential candidate. And, really, that's a danger that someone- one of the people that were in charge at Butler, could be in charge again. That's not right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the President United States has said he is satisfied with the answers he's received in regard to what went wrong. But, back on the point about not telling the truth to Congress: The report found that there were 10 occasions where resources were requested and denied or not filled. And, in fact, when it came to Butler, the counter-surveillance drone request was made over the phone. So, when you say someone is not telling the truth, is it that there was no record of requests and denials? Was this knowingly misleading Congress? Or was this like a culture of cover-up within the agency?
SEN. PAUL 3:06
I think it was a cultural cover-up for the agency. They did not want to assess blame. They did not want to look internally. And they wanted to discount any of their actions that might have led to this. This was a cover your ass sort of moment, and I do believe that they did know. There's no way that the director of Secret Service, that she did not know that these requests had been made. And, so, yes, it was a huge failure. And, if you talk to the current head of the Secret Service, who was Trump's lead detail, and Trump has a great deal of confidence in, he'll admit that these failures existed. But even the disciplinary action that they finally took. They only took because I subpoenaed. I wanted to know who was disciplined. We weren't going to release the names, but I wanted to know who was disciplined and what the discipline was. They refused for a year to tell me that. They told me that a week ago, you saw the news reports, but some of the people were just disciplined two weeks ago, so they weren't going to discipline anybody until I subpoenaed and asked them what they had done. But, in the end, no one was fired. The supervisor who heard about the person on the roof, who did not tell the detail immediately to take the president off the stage, there was a several-minute delay there. He stayed in his job. He did retire recently, but stayed in his job. So, no, I think even the investigation by the Secret Service was inadequate. But that's why we need to have congressional oversight.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you going to request that all, all requests for assets be made in writing and not over the phone, so people can deny that they were ever asked for help?
SEN. RAND PAUL: Yeah, I think they were made in writing as well, and I think some were made by phone, but I think the ones that made by phone were following up on things they made in writing. Somebody was just begging for assets. And think about it, President Trump has had extraordinary rallies, no matter what political perspective you come from, he has extraordinary rallies which have extraordinary risk, much better, much greater risk than having, you know, 200 people in an auditorium where everybody's thoroughly screened and the location is secure. These things really take a lot of detail. But we asked the Secret Service who was in charge of that roof? How could you walk through it three o'clock in the afternoon and see that roof? Nobody walked through. Nobody was in charge. Everybody said, oh, she was in charge of the roof or he was in charge of the roof. No one would actually admit to be in charge of security for Butler.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So there, the big, beautiful bill that the president asked for gives $1.2 billion to the Secret Service. Does money fix that? And what do you say to the family member of the gentleman killed that day? Are we ever going to know the motive of the shooter?
SEN. RAND PAUL: You know, I think we aren't going to know the motive, and I take that at face value. I know a lot of times when we don't get something and we suspect something, we think government's lying to us. And look, I have my doubts about government on many levels, but I think on this level, they've tried their best and I don't think there's a secret answer that they're not revealing to us. I think they just don't know. What we do know is the failures in security, and that the Corey Comperatore could have possibly been saved by having better security that day. And this boy was seen four hours before the shooting. He was seen again 45 minutes before. Three minutes before the shooting the crowd is chanting, man on a roof, man on a roof. 45 seconds to go as he's assembling his gun. 45 seconds is a long time. Nobody told them to take the president off the stage. Inexcusable, terrible security, but whoever is in charge should have been fired, and really should never be in charge of this type of, or have this type of responsibility again.
MARGARET BRENNAN: On the question of forewarning, but on a different topic. This Friday is the deadline for both the Senate and House to vote on a plan to claw back about $9 billion for foreign aid, including also support for NPR and PBS. Some of your fellow Republicans, like Rounds like Murkowski and Collins, have said they are worried about cuts to local radio and public broadcasters in their areas. We looked and in your state of Kentucky, public broadcasters provide critical emergency warnings for the government if there's a storm, for example. Are you concerned that these kind of cuts are going to endanger people?
SEN. RAND PAUL: You know, I got my start on public television, KET in Kentucky, being a commentator for my taxpayer group that I started. So, you know, I am not an enemy of public TV, but at the same time we have a $2 trillion deficit, and what we'll be presented with is a $9 billion cut in spending. And can we, and should we at least start cutting 9 billion? Yes, if I had my druthers and I could plan it, and I could present the package, I like the idea of across the board cuts of a smaller percentage. So instead of taking 100% of public TV, what you do is you take 6% of everything. But the only way that works is you literally have to take 6% of every dollar, and then you have to figure out how to make it work so it's not absorbed by the poor or the needy in our country. And you could do that. With a penny plan, you can balance your budget within six, within five years, but it takes a real 6% cut of everything. But I think people are more willing to accept a haircut on things they like if everybody is accepting the same sort of level of cut.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So are you saying there that you are still going to vote for this? Are there 51 Republicans who are going to vote to cut all this funding and pull it back?
SEN. RAND PAUL: I suspect it's going to be very close. I don't know if it will be modified in advance, but I can't really honestly look Americans in the face and say that I'm going to be doing something about the deficit if I can't cut 9 billion. Even though there are people who make arguments for it, and I can make an argument for a different way to cut it, we're going to be presented with a $9 billion cut and a $2.2 trillion deficit. So we have to cut spending. Absolutely have to cut spending.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And a record boost to the debt ceiling that just happened in the bill you did not vote for, but Republicans did. Senator Paul, thank you for your time today. We'll be right back.
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