In the aftermath of a catastrophic security breach, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has announced her resignation. The move comes more than a week after a would-be assassin targeted former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, firing shots at him from an unsecured rooftop.
Cheatle faced intense scrutiny during her appearance before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, where her evasive responses and stonewalling tactics earned her widespread criticism from lawmakers of both parties. The committee’s chair and ranking member, James Comer and Jamie Raskin, respectively, subsequently penned a joint letter to Cheatle, urging her to step down.
The letter, dated the day after the hearing, lambasted the Secret Service’s performance under Cheatle’s leadership, citing the July 13 assassination attempt that claimed the life of Corey Comperatore and seriously injured at least two others. The lawmakers accused Cheatle of failing to provide satisfactory answers to basic questions surrounding the incident and of not alleviating concerns about the agency’s operational failures.
Reaction to Cheatle’s resignation
President Joe Biden expressed gratitude for Cheatle’s “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,” Biden wrote in a statement, adding that he looks forward to assessing conclusions from an independent review of the Secret Service’s actions on the day of the shooting.
Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., said resigning was the right decision for Cheatle — while saying that whoever assessed the situation on the ground at the rally “probably needs to be out of a job too.”
“I’m blown away that she never went to the site (of the shooting),” Green, chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in an interview. “How many assassination attempts? It’s been 40 years since Reagan. She can’t get herself to the site to take a look?”
Noting that the agency still has the “incredibly important responsibility” of rebuilding trust with the American people, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called the resignation “overdue.”
“Now we have to pick up the pieces,” he said.
