Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, a day after a bruising congressional hearing where she was unable or unwilling to answer many key questions from lawmakers on the failure of the agency to prevent an assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.
“I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she wrote in an email to staff obtained by the Associated Press. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
During the House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday, she admitted the nearly-successful assassination attempt against Trump at a July 13 Butler, Pennsylvania, rally was the “most significant operational failure” in the agency’s history in “decades.”
Despite this, she repeatedly refused to consider resigning — even telling lawmakers that she believed she was the “best person” for the lead job at that time.
She was unable to answer why Secret Service did not question the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, after he was flagged as a suspicious person and the Secret Service was alerted. She was also unable to say why the Secret Service did not put anyone on the roof where Crooks fired at Trump from, or how many agents were present at the rally, or whether the gunman acted alone.
By the end of the three-hour hearing, the committee’s chairman and top Democrat, in addition to a number of its members, both called for her resign after the hearing.
On Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement:
The Oversight Committee’s hearing resulted in Director Cheatle’s resignation and there will be more accountability to come. The Secret Service has a no-fail mission yet it failed historically on Director Cheatle’s watch. At yesterday’s Oversight Committee hearing, Director Cheatle instilled no confidence that she has the ability to ensure the Secret Service can meet its protective mission. Egregious security failures leading up to and at the Butler, Pennsylvania campaign rally resulted in the assassination attempt of President Trump, the murder of an innocent victim, and harm to others in the crowd. While Director Cheatle’s resignation is a step toward accountability, we need a full review of how these security failures happened so that we can prevent them going forward. We will continue our oversight of the Secret Service in support of the House Task Force to deliver transparency, accountability, and solutions to ensure this never happens again.
President Joe Biden praised her in a statement about her resignation:
Jill and I are grateful to Director Kim Cheatle for her decades of public service. She has selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation throughout her career in the United States Secret Service. We especially thank her for answering the call to lead the Secret Service during our Administration and we are grateful for her service to our family.
As a leader, it takes honor, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in public service.
The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions. We all know what happened that day can never happen again. As we move forward, I wish Kim all the best, and I will plan to appoint a new Director soon.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday:
The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO.
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