Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned.
Cheatle offered his resignation the day after a disastrous hearing before the House Oversight Committee and amid growing bipartisan calls for him to step down. His resignation came 10 days after a 20-year-old lone assailant nearly assassinated former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino appeared on the radio show “The Glenn Beck program.”
If Cheatle hadn’t resigned, lawmakers threatened to pursue Immediate impeachment.
“I take full responsibility for any security lapses,” she told the Secret Service, the Associated Press reported. report“In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down from my position on the board.”
Despite leading the Secret Service during its most serious failure since the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, Cheatle had vowed not to resign.
Cheatle visited Capitol Hill on Monday promising accountability, only to reiterate his refusal to resign and ultimately reject it. He even told lawmakers he believed he was “qualified” for the job despite the assassination attempt.
Lawmakers from both parties grilled Cheatle for hours, but she refused to provide any concrete answers about what caused the stunning security failure that took the life of Corey Comperatore and seriously injured two rally attendees.
Instead, she maintained a line of secrecy that infuriated lawmakers.
After the hearing, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and ranking committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) both called for Cheatle’s resignation.
“Today you have failed to answer fundamental questions about that astonishing operational failure, nor have you been able to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned lessons and has begun to correct systemic missteps and failures,” they said. I have written“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.”
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