Impeached immigration czar Alejandro Mayorkas is still supporting his deputy, Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle.
Mayorkas reaffirmed his support on Tuesday, even after Cheatle’s Monday admission that Secret Service agents were deliberately not posted on the roof from which the sniper almost killed President Donald Trump.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point,” Cheatle told ABC News on Monday. “And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof … [so] the decision was made to secure the building from inside,” she said in a segment released on Tuesday.
Early on Tuesday morning, NPR asked Mayorkas, “Do you anticipate people losing jobs over last weekend?”
“I have 100% confidence in the director of the United States Secret Service, a dedicated, career-long law enforcement officer,” Mayorkas told NPR.
He continued:
We are focused on learning from the event and adopting those lessons to be stronger and better, and that is the focus. And we are now in the midst of the Republican National Convention, and our focus is on making sure that is a successful event.
@gma EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle tells ABC News’ Pierre Thomas that the security breach that led to assassination attempt on former Pres. Trump was “unacceptable and it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.” #news
In February, Mayorkas was impeached by the House for failing to shield Americans from a wave of 10 million migrants. In April, the Democratic-led Senate dismissed the charges in a rushed, party-line vote.
Cheatle is a sociology graduate who worked for more than 24 years in the U.S. Secret Service. She was hired for the job in August 2024 by President Joe Biden, who stated:
Jill and I know firsthand Kim’s commitment to her job … When Kim served on my security detail when I was Vice President, we came to trust her judgement and counsel. She is a distinguished law enforcement professional with exceptional leadership skills, and was easily the best choice to lead the agency at a critical moment for the Secret Service. She has my complete trust, and I look forward to working with her.
GOP legislators have scheduled a hearing with Cheatle for Monday. Mayorkas has announced he will soon pick outside experts to review the security failure.
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