US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, acknowledging the agency’s failure to prevent an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. This resignation follows bipartisan calls for her to step down. Cheatle, a veteran with nearly three decades of service, faced increasing pressure after a 20-year-old gunman wounded Trump during a campaign rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, expressed his relief over Cheatle’s resignation. He remarked, “It is overdue, she should have done this at least a week ago. I’m happy to see that she has heeded the call of both Republicans and Democrats.”
President Joe Biden thanked Cheatle for her dedicated service. He noted that she had “selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation throughout her career.” Biden emphasized the importance of ensuring such an incident does not happen again and mentioned that a new director would be appointed soon.
In the interim, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that Ronald Rowe, a 24-year veteran of the agency and current deputy director, would serve as acting director.
Reacting to Cheatle’s 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, where she described the attack on Trump as “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades,” referring to the 1981 shooting of Ronald Reagan. During the tense House hearing, lawmakers from both parties called for her resignation.
She further aggravated legislators by refusing to provide specific details about the attack, citing multiple active investigations.
Details of the attack reveal that the gunman, armed with an AR-style assault rifle, opened fire on Trump just minutes after he began speaking at the campaign event. Positioned on the roof of a nearby building, the gunman was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper within 30 seconds after firing the first of eight shots.
Cheatle revealed that the Secret Service had been alerted “two to five times” before the attack about a “suspicious individual” at the rally. However, they were unable to locate him before he opened fire. Investigators have determined that the gunman, who lived about 50 miles from Butler, acted alone and had no identifiable strong ideological or political motivations.
In addition to Trump’s injury, two rally attendees were seriously wounded, and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was killed. Trump’s former physician, Ronny Jackson, reported that the bullet grazed Trump’s right ear, coming dangerously close to entering his head.
Cheatle, who served as a Secret Service agent for 27 years before leaving in 2021 to become the head of security for PepsiCo in North America, faced significant criticism for the agency’s failure in this incident.
