U.S. Secret Service director steps down after disastrous hearing over Trump shooting
Kimberly Cheatle reverses course after defiantly telling lawmakers she would not step down
The embattled director of the U.S. Secret Service has resigned from her post, one day after lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle eviscerated her over the agency's failure to stop the attempted assassination of former president and Republican candidate Donald J. Trump.
Kimberly Cheatle announced her decision to staff in an email on Tuesday.
"I take full responsibility for the security lapse," read the email, as reported 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."
Cheatle, an agency veteran appointed to her role nearly two years ago, faced bipartisan condemnation after declining to answer most questions from frustrated members of the House oversight committee in Washington on Monday.
Several Republican and Democratic lawmakers demanded her resignation after pummelling her with questions about competency — both hers and the agency's — for more than four-and-a-half hours straight.
The Secret Service, which has been tasked with protecting current and former presidents for more than a century, has faced an intense crisis after reports emerged detailing how it had failed its core mission before the shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13.
The gunman injured Trump, killed a local firefighter and injured two more attendees.
Cheatle described the attempt on Trump's life as the agency's "most significant operational failure" in more than 40 years. She repeatedly declined numerous calls to quit her job and insisted she was the "right person" to lead the agency, saying she was dedicated to finding answers through an internal investigation.
As the hearing went on, lawmakers grew increasingly frustrated by Cheatle's failure to answer specific questions about the security lapses and operational failures leading up to the fairground shooting.
When Republican Rep. Nancy Mace offered her five minutes of question time for Cheatle to start writing her resignation letter from the hearing room, Cheatle responded with a quiet "No, thank you."
Her departure Tuesday is unlikely to pull the spotlight away from the agency. Republican Rep. James Comer, chair of the oversight committee, issued a statement saying the resignation is a "first step" but "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," Comer wrote.
"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."
Earlier Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said they would be creating a bipartisan task force to investigate the assassination attempt and security lapses.
"I'm happy to see [Cheatle] has heeded the call of both Republicans and Democrats. Now we have to pick up the pieces. We have to rebuild the American people's faith and trust in the Secret Service as an agency," said Johnson, describing the director's resignation as "overdue."
In his own statement, President Joe Biden thanked Cheatle for her service to his family and said he would appoint a replacement "soon."
"As a leader, it takes honour, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in public service," said Biden, who gave Cheatle the job in 2022.
"The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions."
The gunman who fired at Trump had a clear shot at the podium from a warehouse roof outside the security perimeter, despite being within range of an AR-15 and having been flagged as a potential vulnerability days before the rally. Cheatle acknowledged the Secret Service has been told about a suspicious person as many as five times before shots were fired, but told lawmakers there is a difference between a person who is suspicious and a person who is a threat.
She did not answer questions as to why the agency didn't have agents placed on the warehouse roof. She also did not answer questions about whether the Secret Service flew a drone over the rally site, as the gunman was reported to have done.
Cheatle is not the first Secret Service director to step down after the attempted assassination of a politician under their care. Former director Stuart Knight, who led the agency for eight years, retired just months after then-president Ronald Reagan was shot and injured while walking down the sidewalk to his limousine in Washington on March 30, 1981.
The man overseeing the agency at the time of then-president John F. Kennedy's death kept his job for another decade after the assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. Following recommendations from the Warren Commission into the killing, James Rowley was credited with modernizing the agency's training protocol, increasing the use of technology and improving its protective intelligence operations.
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With files from The Associated Press