Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns after Trump assassination attempt
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns after an assassination attempt against former President Trump at a campaign rally.
Cheatle, who had served as Secret Service director since August 2022, had been facing growing calls to resign and several investigations into how the shooter was able to get so close to the Republican presidential nominee at an outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reported.
RELATED: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies about Trump shooting
BREAKING: Secret Service Director Cheatle resigns
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has stepped down for her position following the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump. The shooting unleashed an intense outcry for her to step down after the agency failed in its core mission. Cheatle held the position since August 2022. The announcement was made in an email Cheatle sent to staff. Cheatle had been facing growing calls to resign and several investigations into how the shooter was able to get so close to the Republican presidential nominee at an outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
"I take full responsibility for the security lapse," she said in the email to staff Tuesday. "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’s resignation comes a day after she appeared before a congressional committee and was questioned by both Democrats and Republicans about security failures.
RELATED: Gunman used drone to scope rally site before Trump assassination attempt
Biden statement on Secret Service director
President Biden and other lawmakers are responding to the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. This comes one day after lawmakers on both sides of the aisles grilled Cheatle on security failures leading to the attempted assassination of Former President Donald Trump. LiveNOW from FOX's Stephanie Coueignoux speaks to Ken Gray, National Security expert with the University of New Haven, for more.
In the email, Cheatle continued "The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases," she said in her note to staff, per the AP.
RELATED: Trump injured but 'fine' after assassination attempt at Pennsylvania rally
Cheatle called the attempt on the former president's life the Secret Service’s "most significant operational failure" in decades and said she takes fully responsibility for the security lapses, but angered lawmakers by failing to answer specific questions about the investigation.
Biden releases statement on Cheatle
President Joe Biden released a statement on X, formerly Twitter, after Cheatle resigned Tuesday.
"Jill and I are grateful to Director Cheatle for her decades of public service. We especially thank her for answering the call to lead the Secret Service during my Administration and are grateful for her service to our family," Biden wrote.
In a separate X post, the president wrote, "The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions. What happened that day can never happen again. As we move forward, I wish Kim all the best, and I will plan to appoint a new Director soon."
Cheatle testifies before Congress
Cheatle was called to testify in Congress more than a week after the shooting.
She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s "most significant operational failure" in decades, and vowed to "move heaven and earth" to get to the bottom of what went wrong and make sure there’s no repeat of it.
Democrats and Republicans were united in their exasperation as Cheatle said she didn’t know or couldn’t answer numerous questions more than a week after the shooting that left one spectator dead. At one point, Mace used profanity as she accused Cheatle of lying and dodging questions, prompting calls for lawmakers to show "decorum."
RELATED: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies about Trump shooting
Lawmakers pressed Cheatle on how the gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded, and why Trump was allowed to take the stage after local law enforcement had identified Crooks as suspicious.
Cheatle acknowledged that Crooks had been seen by local law enforcement before the shooting with a rangefinder, a small device resembling binoculars that hunters use to measure distance from a target. She said the Secret Service would never have taken Trump onto the stage if it had known there was an "actual threat." Local law enforcement took a photograph of Crooks and shared it after seeing him acting suspiciously outside the security perimeter, but he wasn’t deemed to be a "threat" until seconds before he opened fire, she said.
RELATED: Trump rally shooter was identified as 'potential person of suspicion,' Secret Service director says
The Secret Service has acknowledged it denied some requests by Trump's campaign for increased security at his events in the years before the assassination attempt. But Cheatle said there were "no assets denied" for the Pennsylvania rally.
The 20-year-old shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get within 157 yards of the stage where Trump was speaking when he opened fire.
President Joe Biden appointed Cheatle in August 2022 to take over an agency with a history of scandals, and she worked to bolster diverse hiring, especially of women in the male-dominated service.
The second woman to lead the Secret Service, Cheatle worked her way up for 27 years before leaving in 2021 for a job as a security executive at PepsiCo. Biden brought her back.
Cheatle took over amid a controversy over missing text messages from around the time thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, following his 2020 election loss to Biden.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.