Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) on Monday called on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign, joining many other Democrats who similarly expressed frustration after congressional testimony earlier in the day.
“The rally shooting and attempted assassination of the former President was a major failure by the Secret Service,” Frost said in a post on social platform X.
“Unfortunately, Director Cheatle largely avoided questions and avoided legitimate concerns during today’s hearing. She should resign immediately,” he continued.
During the hearing, Frost attached a video of a brief exchange he had with Cheatle earlier in the day, in which he pressed Cheatle about how many times the Secret Service had been alerted to suspicious activity before the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
“I can’t give you an exact number today, but from what I can gather there have been anywhere from two to five calls of some kind regarding suspicious individuals,” Cheatle replied.
“Secret Service, specifically?” Frost asked. Cheatle confirmed nonverbally.
During the recess of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing, Sen. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) joined calls for Cheatle to resign.
“I don’t want to compound the director’s awful, awful, awful, awful day, but I join the speaker in calling for the director’s resignation because I believe this relationship is beyond repair at this point,” Raskin said. “And I believe the director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and delicate moment in our nation’s history, and we need to get out of this situation immediately.”
Shortly after the hearing, Raskin and Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) sent a joint letter calling on Cheatle to resign.
“Today you have failed to answer fundamental questions about that astonishing operational failure or to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned lessons and has begun to correct systemic missteps and failures. In the midst of a presidential election, the committee and the American people earnestly demand the systemic accountability and transparency that you have not provided,” they said in a rare joint letter.
“We call on you to step down as Secretary as a first step to ensure new leadership can quickly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people.”
Raskin’s call adds to the growing number of Democrats calling for Cheatle’s resignation — a number that grew throughout the disastrous four-hour hearing.
Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., also called for Cheatle’s resignation at the hearing, joining Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pennsylvania, who was the first Democrat to make that request over the weekend.
Many Republicans have joined calls for Cheatle to resign or for President Biden to fire him if he doesn’t.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, called on Cheatle to resign on Wednesday, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also called the same day for the appointment of new leadership for the agency.
