The Director of the U.S. Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, has tendered her resignation following the agency's inability to prevent an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, according to insiders privy to the decision. Cheatle's resignation comes in the wake of mounting pressure for her to step down after a shooting incident at a Trump rally on July 13, which resulted in one fatality and two critically injured attendees.
As reported by ABC News, Cheatle announced her resignation via an email to Secret Service employees on Tuesday morning. In her email, she acknowledged the agency's failure to fulfill its mission of protecting the nation's leaders and financial infrastructure. "On July 13th, we fell short on that mission," she wrote. "The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases. As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse."
In a subsequent interview with ABC News, Cheatle described the incident as "unacceptable," asserting that it was her duty to ensure such an event never recurs. "The buck stops with me," she declared. "I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary."
Despite the mounting pressure, Cheatle had previously insisted she would not resign from her role, a stance she reiterated during her testimony before the House on Monday. During the heated hearing, she labeled the assassination attempt on Trump as the "most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.
In her testimony before the House committee, Cheatle reiterated her commitment to the Secret Service's mission and accepted full responsibility for the security lapse. "We are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. We must learn what happened," she stated. She assured the committee that she would move "heaven and earth" to prevent a recurrence of such an incident.
Cheatle's resignation was called for by both Republicans and Democrats following the shooting. John Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, was among those who believed she should step down. By the end of the hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the committee, echoed the calls for Cheatle's resignation, stating that she "has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country and we need to quickly move beyond this."
Critics questioned the Secret Service's failure to secure the rally area, especially given reports that the shooter had been identified as potentially suspicious before he opened fire. Cheatle had previously told ABC News that "a very short period of time" elapsed between the identification of the shooter and the shooting.
Cheatle also confirmed that local authorities were responsible for securing the building from which the alleged shooter fired the shots before being neutralized by a Secret Service sniper. She stated that local police were present inside the building while the shooter was on the roof.
Cheatle's critics, including prominent conservatives like Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., have targeted her gender, labeling her a "DEI hire" and suggesting that female Secret Service agents have "physical limitations" that should prevent them from serving.
In a statement announcing the hearing, chairman Comer said, "Americans demand answers" from Cheatle. "The United States Secret Service has a no-fail mission, yet it failed on Saturday when a madman attempted to assassinate President Trump, killed an innocent victim, and harmed others," Comer said. "We are grateful to the brave Secret Service agents who acted quickly to protect President Trump after shots were fired and the American patriots who sought to help victims, but questions remain about how a rooftop within proximity to President Trump was left unsecure."
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