Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigns after Trump assassination attempt

Cheatle admitted to major ‘operational failure’ in her testimony to members of Congress

Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned from her post after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Cheatle stepped down one day after she testified to a congressional committee about law enforcement failures during Trump’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. She has faced widespread calls for her resignation in the aftermath of the attack, where one rally attendee was killed and at least two other people were critically injured.

A joint letter from both Democratic and Republican leaders on the House oversight committee called for her to step down after Monday’s hearing, where lawmakers were repeatedly frustrated by her inability to provide detailed answers about the Secret Service’s actions that day, with one Republican lawmaker telling her she is “full of s***”.

In her testimony, Cheatle said the shooting was “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades”.

She told the panel that she takes “full responsibility for any security lapse” and pledged to “move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13 does not happen again”.

“There are multiple ongoing investigations into this incident, hundreds of people to interview, and thousands of documents to review,” she said. “I do not want to inadvertently provide you today with inaccurate information … I may not be able to speak specifically to certain items that have circulated over the past nine days.”

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before a House Oversight Committee hearing on July 22. about security failures at campaign rally where Donald Trump was shot. Cheatle resigned one day after the hearing. (Reuters)

A letter from Republican committee chair James Comer and ranking Democratic member Jamie Raskin blasted Cheatle for her failure “to provide answers to basic questions” and inability to “reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures”.

“In the middle of a presidential election, the committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing,” the letter said. “We call on you to resign as director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people.”

After Cheatle’s resignation, Comer called for a “full review of how these security failures happened so that we can prevent them going forward” after the Secret Service’s “no-fail mission” failed “historically” on Cheatle’s watch.

“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,” he added.

Twenty-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks fired an AR-15-style rifle from a roof outside the rally’s security perimeter in Butler, Pennsylvania, striking Trump’s ear and killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore.

Crooks was fatally shot by a Secret Service sniper.

Donald Trump’s Secret Service detail covers the former president after shots were fired during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 (Reuters)

Cheatle had worked for the Secret Service for 27 years and then as a security official for PepsiCo before she was sworn into leading the agency in 2022.

Secret Service deputy director Ronald L Rowe Jr will step in as acting director.

“I appreciate his willingness to lead the Secret Service at this incredibly challenging moment, as the agency works to get to the bottom of exactly what happened on July 13 and cooperate with ongoing investigations and Congressional oversight,” Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.

House speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries are also creating a bipartisan task force to further investigate the attack. The panel will be made up of 13 members, including seven Republicans and six Democrats.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Johnson said Cheatle’s resignation was “overdue”.

“She should have done this at least a week ago,” he said. “Now we have to pick up the pieces. We have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service agency as an agency. It has an incredibly important responsibility in protecting presidents, former presidents and other officials in the executive branch.”

In his first televised interview since the attack, Trump told Fox News he was not given any warning of a “problem” from Secret Service agents and other officers following reports that top law enforcement officials had denied Trump’s requests for additional manpower at other events before the Pennsylvania rally.

“The Biden/Harris administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy,” he said on Truth Social on Tuesday. “IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!”

In a statement following her resignation, president Joe Biden thanked Cheatle for her “decades of public service” and after she “selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation throughout her career” with the agency.

“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,” Biden said. “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.”