After Refusing To Resign In The Wake Of The Agency’s Failures In The Attempted Assassination Of Trump, Cheatle Steps Down On Tuesday

Tuesday, July 23, 2024, 1:15 P.M. ET. 3 Minute Read, By Jennifer Hodges: Englebrook Independent News,

WASHINGTON, DC. On Tuesday, Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle, in an internal email to Secret Service staff and in a letter to President Joe Biden, said she would be resigning effective immediately in wake of the Saturday, July 13th failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

     Cheatle, who came under fire on Monday by both Democratic and Republican Lawmakers during her testimony before members of the House Oversight Committee, provided few details and answers into how a 20-year-old man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, who took his father’s AR Style rifle and climbed on top of a roof and open fire wounding former President Trump and killing a husband and father of two, and former firefighter Cory Comperatore, and severely injuring another two attendees. 

     Cheatle admitted under oath in her opening statement to members of the Oversight Committee that the Secret Service on “July 13th, We Failed. As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency.” she said. “We must learn what happened, and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th never happens again.”

     House Republicans and Democrats alike, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, who had been calling on Cheatle to resign, calling her and the agency under her watch “The Face of Incompetence. It is my firm belief, Director Cheatle, that you should resign,” Comer said during the hearing.

     Cheatle from the day of the assassination attempt provided few details and even blamed local law enforcement for the security lapses that local officials refuted in numerous press releases.

     Following her resignation, President Biden praised Cheatle for not firing her, which was what Biden should have done immediately after the July 13th attempt on former President Trump’s life.

     Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, “I am grateful to Kimberly Cheatle for her leadership as Director of the United States and for her lifelong devotion to our country.”

     Since being sworn into office on September 17, 2022, Cheatle has shifted hiring standards instead of focusing on training. 

     Under her watch, in 2023, ranking of the best places to work in federal as measured by the Office of Personnel Management’s annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and compiled by the Partnership for Public Service, the United States Secret Service came in 413 for overall engagement and satisfaction out of 459 subcomponent agencies.