Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle announced her resignation Tuesday, less than 24 hours after appearing before the House to address security lapses in the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life.
Cheatle was grilled by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle at the oversight committee hearing Monday, where she took full responsibility for the security failures but refused to answer many direct questions about why more steps weren’t taken to prevent the shooting.
Following the hearing, Cheatle received a bipartisan letter seeking her resignation. She finally caved to the mounting pressure on Tuesday, although no immediate replacement has been announced.
In her resignation letter, she said it was a difficult decision to leave, and that doing so was with a heavy heart, adding that she does not want to be the one to distract agents.
“In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director,” she wrote.
She also acknowledged that her team fell short on the day of the shooting, CNN reported.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden expressed their heartfelt gratitude towards Cheatle, recognizing her many years of public service.
“As a leader, it takes honor, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in public service,” the President said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson also spoke with reporters regarding Cheatle’s resignation and called it a move that was “overdue.”
“The immediate reaction to her resignation is that it is overdue. She should have done this at least a week ago. I’m happy to see that she has heeded the call of both Republicans and Democrats,” Johnson noted.
“Now we have to pick up the pieces,” he said further.
“We have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service as an agency. It has an incredibly important responsibility in protecting presidents, former presidents, and other officials in the executive branch, and we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Johnson added, as per Spectrum News’ report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
