Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday (July 23) after the agency failed to prevent an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers called for her resignation.
The Secret Service is in a crisis after a gunman fired on Trump from a roof overlooking his outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. A bullet grazed his right ear. One person was killed and two others were injured.
The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, armed with an AR-style rifle, was shot dead dead at the scene by a Secret Service sniper.
In an email to Secret Service employees on Tuesday, Cheatle wrote that “in light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director”.
President Biden in a statement on Tuesday thanked her for answering his call to lead the agency.
Cheatle held a top security role at PepsiCo when Biden named her Secret Service director in 2022.
Cheatle protected Biden when he was vice president
She previously served 27 years in the agency and protected Dick Cheney and Biden when they were vice presidents.
However, the security failure leading to the Trump assassination attempt made her position untenable.
Lawmakers and officials asked why the building from which the gunman fired was excluded from the Secret Service’s security perimeter. They also asked why Trump was allowed to take the stage when security officers were searching for a suspicious person.
Cheatle angered the lawmakers by not giving specific answers to their questions.
On Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, announced a deal to form a bipartisan task force to lead the congressional investigations into the assassination attempt.