By Chris Lefkow
WASHINGTON, July 23, 2024 (AFP) – US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, a day after acknowledging that the agency had failed in its mission to prevent an assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
Cheatle was facing bipartisan calls to step down after a 20-year-old gunman wounded the former Republican president and current White House candidate at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“It is overdue, she should have done this at least a week ago,” Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters. “I’m happy to see that she has heeded the call of both Republicans and Democrats.”
President Joe Biden thanked Cheatle for her nearly three decades in the Secret Service and said she had “selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation throughout her career.”
“We all know what happened that day can never happen again,” Biden said in a statement. He said he would appoint a new director soon.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that Secret Service deputy director Ronald Rowe, a 24-year veteran of the agency, would serve as acting director until a replacement is named for Cheatle.
Reacting to her resignation, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. It was my great honor to do so!”
Cheatle appeared before a congressional committee on Monday and said the attack on Trump represented “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades” — a reference to the 1981 shooting of Ronald Reagan.
Both Republicans and Democrats called on Cheatle to resign during the tense House hearing.
She drew the ire of lawmakers from both parties by refusing to provide specific details about the attack, citing the existence of multiple active investigations.
– ‘Suspicious individual’ –
The gunman opened fire on Trump with an AR-style assault rifle just minutes after he began speaking at the campaign event.
Perched on the roof of a nearby building, he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper less than 30 seconds after firing the first of eight shots.
Cheatle said the Secret Service was alerted “two to five times” ahead of the attack about a “suspicious individual” at the rally, but was unable to locate him before he opened fire.
Investigators have concluded that the gunman, who lived in a town about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Butler, acted alone, and have not been able to identify any strong ideological or political leanings.
Two rally attendees were seriously wounded in the attack and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was shot dead.
Trump’s former physician said over the weekend that the Republican candidate sustained a gunshot wound on his right ear.
“The bullet passed, coming less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear,” ex-White House physician Ronny Jackson said.
Cheatle served as a Secret Service agent for 27 years before leaving in 2021 to become the head of security for PepsiCo in North America.
She was named to head the agency by Biden in 2022.
