U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has stepped down after widespread calls by lawmakers for her to resign following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13.
Cheatle’s resignation comes a day after she faced questions from angry lawmakers from both parties exasperated over the Secret Service’s failure to protect Trump.
Her responses, however, didn’t satisfy the leaders of the House Oversight Committee that held the hearing Monday.
“Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures,” Chairman James Comer R-Ky., and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., wrote in a joint letter to Cheatle hours after the hearing ended.
The two members said that the committee and American people “demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing,” especially during a presidential election year.
“We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people,” they wrote.
Cheatle said in her resignation letter that she made the “difficult” decision to leave the agency “with a heavy heart” and that she doesn’t want her departure to distract agents from their mission.
“In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that, I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director,” Cheatle wrote. She acknowledged that on July 13, the day of the shooting, the agency “fell short” of its mission to “to protect our nation’s leaders.”
Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe has been tapped to lead the agency, the Department of Homeland Security announced.
In a statement, President Joe Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden are “grateful” for Cheatle’s decades 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,” Biden said of Cheatle.
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