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CV NEWS FEED // Biden-Harris administration Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle announced Tuesday that she was resigning her post effective immediately.
Critics from across the political spectrum have been demanding she step down for ten days, citing her agency’s heavily scrutinized handling of the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Cheatle’s resignation came one day after a bipartisan group of lawmakers pressed her at a House Oversight Committee hearing over various areas of concern regarding the Secret Service’s response.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure,” Cheatle wrote in an email announcing her resignation to her employees. “On [July 13], we fell short on that mission.”
“The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases,” she added. “As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse.”
In her opening statement at Monday’s hearing, Cheatle had acknowledged that the shooting a week and a half ago represented the “most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.”
>> CHEATLE TELLS LAWMAKERS TRUMP SHOOTING WAS ‘SIGNIFICANT FAILURE’ OF HER AGENCY <<
Both President Joe Biden and Biden-Harris Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas praised Cheatle after she announced her resignation. Cheatle is a Biden appointee.
Via a statement, Biden said: “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.”
Mayorkas stated that Cheatle is “deeply respected by the men and women of the agency and by her fellow leaders in the Department of Homeland Security [DHS].”
“I am proud to have worked with Director Cheatle and we are all grateful for her service,” added Mayorkas.
The Secret Service has been part of the DHS since 2003, shortly after the department’s creation. Previously, the Secret Service was part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
>> ANALYSIS: ‘DIVERSITY’ HAS BEEN TOP PRIORITY FOR SECRET SERVICE <<
At the House Committee hearing, Rep. Pat Fallon, R-TX, told Cheatle, “under your leadership your agency got outsmarted and outmaneuvered by a 20-year-old.”
“How do we have any confidence that you can stop trained professionals from a nefarious nation-state?” Fallon asked her.
Cheatle did not give a direct response to his question.
Fallon also singled out Cheatle’s previous assertions that the Secret Service did not place an agent on the roof where the would-be assassin shot from due to it being “sloped.” Fallon described such comments as “nothing but pathetic excuses … It wasn’t the roof that was dangerous, it was the nutjob on top of the roof.”
“It is a miracle President Trump wasn’t killed,” the congressman added. “Your horrifying ineptitude and lack of skilled leadership is a disgrace.”
