Lawmakers Demand Secret Service Director’s Resignation During Testimony

US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle acknowledged that the agency failed in its mission to prevent the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the leading Democrat on the House oversight committee called for the resignation of Cheatle. The call for Cheatle's resignation unfolded during a tense congressional hearing where bipartisan members pressed for accountability regarding security lapses leading to the shooting incident. 

Failed to protect Trump: Cheatle 

Cheatle said that her agency failed in its mission to protect former President Donald Trump during a highly contentious congressional hearing with lawmakers of both major political parties demanding she resign over security failures that allowed a gunman to scale a roof and open fire at a campaign rally.

Cheatle was berated for hours by Republicans and Democrats, repeatedly angering lawmakers by evading questions about the investigation in her first congressional hearing over the July 13 assassination attempt She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.

“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” Cheatle said.

Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting. She also revealed that the roof from which Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally. Cheatle said she apologized to Trump in a phone call after the shooting.

Yet Cheatle remained defiant that she was the “right person” to lead the Secret Service, even as she said she takes full responsibility for any security lapses at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.