Robert Tait – The Guardian July 23, 2024

The director of the US Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, has resigned just a day after a contentious House hearing where members of both parties called for her to quit her job in the wake of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally.

Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, had called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.

She had told lawmakers at a hearing – where Republicans and Democrats indulged in a rare display of unity – that she would takes full responsibility for the security lapses. But she also angered her interrogators by failing to answer some specific questions about the investigation into what exactly went wrong.

The 20-year-old gunman who tried to take Trump’s life had seemingly dodged all the security around the former US president with ease and was able to open fire from a roof near the stage on which Trump was speaking. The attack came despite him being spotted by onlookers at the rally and encountering law enforcement.

The assassination attempt failed but injured Trump and two other rally-goers and killed another. It roiled American politics and shocked political observers on all sides as it came amid widespread fears of an uptick in political violence during a deeply fraught election campaign.

In her resignation letter to staff Cheatle said: “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. The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases. As your director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse.”

She added: “The Secret Service will move forward with our investigatory and protective mission in a steadfast manner. We do not retreat from challenge. However, I do not want my calls for resignation to be a distraction from the great work each and every one of you do towards our vital mission … In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that, I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”

Joe Biden issued a statement accepting Cheatle’s resignation – after he had contacted Trump personally after the assassination attempt and later called on political leaders to “lower the temperature” to ward off the dangers of political violence.

Speaking on behalf of his wife Jill, the first lady, and himself, the president paid tribute to Cheatle for taking responsibility for the apparent security failure that led to the attempt on Trump’s life.

“As a leader, it takes honour, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organisation tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in public service,” Biden said.

Biden said an “independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13th 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.”

Trump responded to Tuesday’s news with a post on his Truth Social network, in which he attempted to blame Biden and Kamala Harris – the vice-president and now his likely presidential opponent in November – for the assassination attempt.

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

Cheatle’s departure follows a clamour from Democrats as well as Republicans that she step down in light of her testimony at Monday’s hearing at the House oversight committee, where she was seen as failing to provide answers to basic questions.

Her responses prompted the South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace, a Republican, to tell her at one point “you’re so full of shit today”.

More damagingly, her resignation was demanded by the committee’s Republican chairperson, James Comer, and its ranking Democrat, Jamie Raskin, in a joint letter to Cheatle after she testified.

“Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures,” they wrote.

“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.”

The Republican US House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the leader of the chamber’s majority, Steve Scalise, had also called for her to resign.

Cheatle told ABC in an interview in the days after the shooting that “the buck stops with me” and said the assassination attempt was “unacceptable”.

Days later, in a graphic display of GOP anger over the event, footage captured her being publicly accosted by two Republican senators at the party’s national convention in Milwaukee and told that she had questions to answer.

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