By Illinois Review
On Tuesday, U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned according to the White House – nearly two weeks after an assassination attempt almost killed former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania that killed one man and critically injured two others.
On Monday, Cheatle appeared before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, where both Republican and Democratic members grilled her and criticized her inability to answer questions surrounding the assassination attempt of the 45th President. During the hearing, the embattled Secret Service boss admitted failure and took responsibility, telling the committee,
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed. As the Director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse.”
Following the hearing, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky) and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) wrote a joint letter calling on Cheatle to resign – indicating a rare moment of bipartisanship in Washington, writing,
“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. In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing. 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.”
Just days ago, the U.S. Secret Service was forced to admit that they denied the Trump campaign’s request for additional security at rallies. In the days after the shooting, the Secret Service rejected the idea that they had declined to allocate additional resources to protect the former president – but after a week of intense scrutiny – they were forced to admit that they had lied.
The fallout from the assassination attempt continues to dominate headlines and a congressional task force was created to investigate the events surrounding the shooting and recommend changes to prevent another assassination attempt from happening again.
