Secret Service Director resigns after hearing
Congressional hearing on attempted assassination of Trump did not go well for Cheatle
This week there was a Congressional hearing on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. That hearing involved Kimberly Cheatle, the now-former director of the Secret Service.
Cheatle resigned the day after the hearing, on July 23.
In a letter to Secret Service staff, Cheatle wrote, “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that, I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director.”
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure. On July 13th, we fell short on that mission,” wrote Cheatle.
“The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases,” Cheatle wrote. “As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse.”
Her resignation comes after calls for her to quit came from dozens of Republicans and Democrats alike, as well as a formal request to resign from the Congressional Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin.
Comer issued a statement, crediting the hearing for Cheatle finally resigning.
“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.”
In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden are “grateful” for Cheatle’s “decades of public service.”
“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 in the statement.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said her resignation was overdue and now was the time to “pick up the pieces” as Congress plans a full Warren Commission-style probe into the assassination attempt.
More To The Story
The hearing, which lasted over five hours of Cheatle being grilled by lawmakers took place on July 22.
Here are some of the highlights.
“The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13th is the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades,” Cheatle said in her opening remarks.
She also admitted the security for Trump was a “colossal failure.”
Cheatle was asked to resign by nearly all of the Committee members at the hearing. Each time she refused and insisted she was the best person for the job.
“I think I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time,” Cheatle told lawmakers.
“I don't think you should resign. I think you should have been fired. Ma’am, you are a DEI horror story," Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told Cheatle.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) tore into Cheatle over advance team activities and about the assassin, Thomas Crooks. Luna asked if there was another shooter that day in order to dispel rumors online and Cheatle said there wasn’t. Lunda also asked about pre-event security meetings and threat identification, and the result of that line of questioning resulted in Luna saying Cheatle had perjured herself.
"I feel that you have perjured yourself in some instances,” Luna said to Chairman Comer and Cheatle. “I ask that we bring perjury charges against the Director. We are prepared to hold you in contempt!"
Under questioning about what happened to the director of her agency, Stuart Knight, when Reagan was shot, Cheatle thought he remained on duty. Knight actually resigned.
Cheatle came unprepared and dodged answering questions directly throughout much of the hearing. She failed to answer basic questions such as why the rooftop the shooter took up his position on was unsecured, what law enforcement agencies were on the ground and what were their assignments, what the Secret Service knew about the assassin, and what kind of advanced planning her agency did prior to the rally.
During her testimony, she also admitted the Secret Service didn’t even have a timeline of events for the Butler rally despite nine days having passed.
“I have to say, director, we're pretty close to the halfway point during this,” Comer said around the three hour mark. “You answered more questions with an ABC reporter than you have with members of Congress.”
Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-SC) line of questioning was one of the most heated, with Mace calling Cheatle’s answers “bullshit.”
Progressive Squad member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) actually asked a solid question about the perimeter.
“The individual used an AR-15 in order to act out his assassination attempt,” Ocasio Cortez stated. “An AR-15 has a range of about 400 to 600 yards. My question is, why is the Secret Service protective perimeter shorter than one of the most popular semi-automatic weapons in the United States?”
Cheatle responded that, “there are a number of weapons out there with a number of ranges,” and could not “speak to specifics” about how the perimeter was established.
It was also learned during the hearing that Cheatle has not been to the Butler site, but that a number of the Committee members had gone to survey the area.
Hearing links with additional details and testimony clips:
Thread of hearing highlight clips
Video of the hearing: