U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday following intense pressure after the recent assassination attempt on former President Trump. This announcement came after Cheatle testified before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, a week after 20-year-old Thomas Crooks attempted to kill Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
During the rally, Trump narrowly avoided being fatally shot, with a bullet from Crooks’ AR-15-style rifle grazing his upper right ear. Tragically, the bullet struck and killed Corey Comperatore, a firefighter who was shielding his family, and injured two others.
Cheatle, in her testimony, admitted the agency’s failure on that day, stating, “On July 13th, we failed.” She added, “As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency. We must learn what happened, and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again.”
Despite this, Cheatle initially resisted calls to resign, believing she was the best person to lead the agency through this crisis. However, House Republicans, including Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, were adamant that she step down. “It is my firm belief, Director Cheatle, that you should resign,” Comer said during the hearing. “The safety of Secret Service protectees is not based on their political affiliation. And the bottom line is that under Director Cheatle’s leadership, we question whether anyone is safe.”
Cheatle explained that the decision to secure the building from inside rather than positioning an agent on the sloped roof, which Crooks used to shoot at Trump, was a factor in the security lapse. She admitted, “The building was outside of the perimeter on the day of the visit. But again, that is one of the things that during the investigation, we want to take a look at and determine whether or not other decisions should have been made.”
In her resignation statement, Cheatle expressed regret for the incident and reiterated her commitment to improving the agency’s security measures. “Our agents, officers, and support personnel understand that every day we are expected to sacrifice our lives to execute a no-fail mission,” she said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed that Cheatle’s resignation was “overdue” and emphasized the need to restore public trust in the Secret Service. “Now we have to pick up the pieces,” Johnson said. “We have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service as an agency. It has an incredibly important responsibility in protecting presidents, former presidents, and other officials in the executive branch, and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) was blunt in her criticism during the hearing, telling Cheatle, “You’re full of shit today. You are just being completely dishonest.” Similarly, Representative Pat Fallon (R-TX) harshly remarked, “You should be fired immediately and go back to guarding Doritos.”
Cheatle, who had left a job managing Global Security at PepsiCo to lead the Secret Service in 2022, promised full cooperation with ongoing investigations by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general and congressional inquiries into the security lapses. The Secret Service’s coordination with local Pennsylvania law enforcement, who had flagged Crooks as suspicious before the shooting, is also under scrutiny.
As investigations continue, the focus remains on addressing the significant and colossal problems highlighted by this incident to prevent any future lapses in security.
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