Former President Donald Trump responded to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s announcement on Tuesday that she would resign following criticism over the agency’s response to the recent assassination attempt on the former president.
In an interview Fox News Digital “She didn’t give me the proper protection, and I ended up having to take a bullet for democracy,” Trump said Tuesday afternoon.
“We fell short.”
He claimed his campaign had submitted multiple requests for additional security, but that security companies often rejected them or ignored them altogether.
“We’ve had numerous requests from the Secret Service at the venue to increase the number of people, but they’ve always said no or been unresponsive,” Trump told the outlet. “We’re seeing the biggest crowds in history, so we should treat them accordingly.”
“We’ve seen significant improvement over the last week,” he added, according to Fox News Digital.
Cheatle sent a letter to the Secret Service on Tuesday morning announcing his resignation, despite previously refusing to resign.
“To the United States Secret Service: Your solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leadership and financial infrastructure,” Cheatle wrote. “On July 13th, we failed in that mission.”
During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday, she faced pressure from both parties to resign after acknowledging that the department’s response to the assassination attempt was a “failure.”
After Cheatle refused to resign on Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a motion to force an impeachment vote in the House that evening, according to recent reports. press release.
During the hearing, Mace asked Cheatle if the agency’s response had been a “catastrophe,” to which Cheatle replied, “Yes.” Mace criticized the Secret Service for its lack of transparency, noting that lawmakers had to subpoena Cheatle to testify. Mace accused the secretary of leaking his opening statement to various media outlets ahead of the hearing and before presenting it to the committee.
“I have no idea how anything I said got leaked,” Cheatle said.
“Well, that’s bullshit,” Mace countered. “On July 15th, this committee sent you a list of requests for information that we were seeking. Did the Secret Service provide this committee with a complete list of all law enforcement officers that were there on that day?”
“I’ll get back to you on that later,” Cheatle replied.
“The answer is no,” Mace continued. “You’ve been lying a lot today. You’ve been completely dishonest.”
“We have not received a single document, information or data from you or your agencies,” Mace added.
During his testimony, Cheatle did not directly answer a question about how many times police had refused requests for additional security from the Trump campaign.
In her opening statement to the committee, she acknowledged that the Secret Service’s response to the assassination attempt was “the greatest Secret Service operational failure in decades,” but she maintained at the time that she was “the best person” to lead the service.
On Tuesday afternoon, after Cheatle caved in to calls for him to resign, President Joe Biden statement She spoke about the decision and thanked her for her contribution.
“As a leader, it takes honor, courage and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization that has one of the most difficult jobs in public service,” the statement said. “The independent investigation continues to determine the truth of what happened on July 13, and we look forward to evaluating its conclusions. We all know that what happened that day must never happen again.”
During his testimony before the committee on Monday, Cheatle said the initial internal investigation, which is currently being conducted by the department, will take about 60 days.
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