Washington, DC - Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, expressed confusion with the seemingly contradictory statements coming from the United States Secret Service (USSS).

On Monday, USSS Director Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle did a live interview with ABC correspondent Pierre Thomas and stated:

In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter. And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building -- there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.

In the early morning hours on Tuesday, the USSS posted this statement on the social media platform X:

Any news suggesting the Secret Service is blaming local law enforcement for Saturday’s incident is simply not true.

“I am having difficulty reconciling the answer the Director gave in her ABC interview with the official statement made on social media,” Yoes said.  “Our goal is to provide whatever assistance the Secret Service needs to perform their mission and to do so with mutual respect, trust, and accuracy.”