
In any other situation, Americans might have felt sorry for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle as she faced questioning on Monday regarding her department’s failure to ensure the safety of an assignee.
The slack-faced, confused, and badgered Cheatle appeared to be fighting tears as she dodged questions with almost the same skill as former President Donald Trump dodged an assassin’s bullet on July 13 at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Since the incident, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have questioned how the Secret Service allowed a 20-year-old would-be assassin to perch on a roof absurdly close to the stage. Agents and local police ignored observers in the crowd who repeatedly tried to draw their attention to a “suspicious person” climbing around on the roof.
When the dust settled, two people, including the shooter, were dead, several were injured, and a presidential candidate was stuck in the ear by a bullet intended to end his campaign permanently.
In a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, Democrat and Republican lawmakers called on Cheatle to step down. While she refused during the hearing, it was confirmed today that she will voluntarily leave her post.
Cheatle’s hearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee was, by any account, a complete disaster. On Monday, Cheatle frustrated lawmakers by giving careful and vague answers to tough questions.
The top Republican and Democrat on the House Oversight Committee asked Cheatle questions that still haven’t been answered. Some remaining questions include why there weren’t any Secret Service agents on the roof where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired shots at Trump, why he wasn’t stopped when people saw him on the roof with a rifle, and whether Crooks flew a drone over the area before the rally.
Cheatle didn’t directly answer these questions. She said the FBI told her about the possible drone, but it was still being investigated.
She repeatedly mentioned that it had only been nine days since the incident and that the investigation was ongoing. She also said she wouldn’t discuss the specifics of that day.
Cheatle acknowledged that before Trump went on stage, the Secret Service was alerted “between two and five times” about a suspicious person in the area. The agency is investigating why Trump was still allowed on stage despite these warnings and the fact that rallygoers saw Crooks with a gun right before the shots were fired.
Cheatle believes that the Secret Service agents didn’t know there was a threat when they brought Trump on stage. She explained that there’s a difference between suspicious behavior and an actual threat. At first, Crooks was just acting suspiciously, and it wasn’t clear he was a threat until just seconds before he started shooting.
When Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) asked when Crooks was identified as a threat, Cheatle indicated that initial reports about Crooks didn’t label him as an active threat but merely someone “acting suspiciously.”
CNN had previously reported that the Secret Service had denied requests from Trump’s security team at some past events. Responding to that report, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) asked Cheatle if Trump had received all the security he requested before the shooting. Cheatle said that all requested security was provided for the event.
Cheatle admitted that the Trump assassination attempt was the biggest failure for the Secret Service in decades, comparing it to the failed attempt on President Reagan in 1981. Despite this significant failure, Cheatle said she wouldn’t resign.
Lawmakers from both parties called for her to step down. Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) noted that the Secret Service director during the Reagan shooting eventually resigned. Khanna asked Cheatle if she believed staying in her role was best for America.
Cheatle said she would stay in her position and “be responsible to the agency, the committee, the former president, and the American public.”
But Cheatle had an apparent change of heart and announced her resignation in an email sent to staff on Tuesday morning. She wrote, “I take full responsibility for the security lapse. In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director.”
On Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said Cheatle’s resignation is a “step toward accountability.” He also said they would continue overseeing the Secret Service to ensure something like this never happens again.