Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle announced Tuesday she is resigning from her post over the agency’s failures to properly protect former President Donald Trump from an attempted assassination on July 13.
In an email sent to staff obtained by The Oversight Project, a division of The Heritage Foundation, Cheatle admitted that the Secret Service fell short of its mission to protect the former president.
“The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases,” she said. “As your director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse.”
“In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director,” she said, noting that she had served as a special agent for 27 years and emphasizing her commitment to serving with honor and integrity.
“As I stated in the hearing yesterday, all of you are worthy of trust and confidence,” she continued. “You deserve the nation’s support in carrying out our critical mission. One of my favorite things about this workforce is that the men and women are fiercely committed to our mission.”
Her resignation follows an hours-long hearing on Capitol Hill on Monday in which Cheatle testified before the House Oversight Committee in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump.
Numerous lawmakers—from both sides of the aisle—had called for Cheatle to resign after a gunman fired multiple shots at Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 33 miles north of Pittsburgh. A former fire chief, Corey Comperatore, 50, died shielding his family from the gunfire, and two other rally attendees were injured.
Throughout the hearing, Cheatle angered lawmakers by refusing to divulge information, citing the ongoing investigation into the assassination attempt.
The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal.
Trump reacted to the news in a post on Truth Social.
“The Biden/Harris administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for democracy,” he wrote. “IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!”
In a statement issued from the White House in President Joe Biden’s name on Tuesday, Biden expressed gratitude to Cheatle “for her decades of public service.”
“She has selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation throughout her career in the United States Secret Service,” he said. “We especially thank her for answering the call to lead the Secret Service during our administration, and we are grateful for her service to our family.”
The statement emphasized that “the independent review” of the attempted assassination will continue.
“I look forward to assessing its conclusions,” the Biden statement said. “We all know 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.”
In written testimony on Monday, Cheatle had called the assassination attempt “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”
“I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts,” Cheatle had said in her written testimony. “I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief and a hero, who was killed in this senseless shooting. I would also like to acknowledge those who were injured in Butler, Pennsylvania, David Dutch and James Copenhaven, and I wish them a speedy recovery.”
Fred Lucas, Virginia Allen, and Elizabeth Mitchell contributed to this report.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Mary Margaret Olohan.
Take a moment and think about all of the Biden (Obama) Administration failures. There is not one member of his Cabinet that is capable or held accountable. From failures in Europe and the Middle East, withdraw from Afghanistan (resulting in 13 soldiers killed and scores wounded) ships crashing into bridges, Train crashes, Airline and plane failures, Maui, and now an attempt on the life of President Trump. The list goes on and on! Biden has placed people in charge simply because it fit the DNC`s narrative and directions, placing Americans and our country in danger. Resignation is the easy way out for Cheatle and she does not want to answer for her woeful performance. Is there something else? Was she told to scale back Trumps protection and put poor performing agents on his detail ? The entire Country saw an undersized, overweight female agent that could not return her weapon to her holster and look totally lost as to what to do. I will not disparage the brave agents that did their jobs but we saw what we saw! I for one, am tired of the lip service answers and lies. WE need Trump more that ever. We need qualified people and patriots running this country, not DEI failures.
She finally resigns and ole Joe along with his spouse in crime revere her for her service and their love for her. In ole Joe’s administration you can do what you want. Especially if it happens to Trump or Maga people. To the point that attempted assassination is praised. Obiden’s administration have not taken any responsibility for anything that has occurred under their watch. Even the shooting on July 13 that killed one of our citizens and injured 2 more, has not been condemned by Obiden. The lies came out of the woodwork immediately as it was an inside job, to no big deal. Joe didn’t even resign over this he was pushed out as a candidate for re-election. And now he is working on pushing Kameltoe on the American people. She is even less of a leader than ole Joe. But can be molded to obey the deep state that runs our country. In 24 hours she was elevated to the throne and we were told she is our salvation. She is just a younger clone of Joe and can read what others put on the teleprompter. Speaking without cheat sheets she fails miserably. We are in a crisis of such large proportions we never again will live in the land of the FREE or the home of the BRAVE. America just fell in despair and we are standing at the gates of hell. May our Good Lord save us one more time on November the 5th-2024.
So what happens now? The whole episode gets swept under the run for allowing Trump to be nearly killed. Will we ever know how the Democrat Party arranged this to happen. This entire event is so stupid it could only have been pre-planned.
Why wasn’t she fired by Biden? Biden should not be allowed to choose her replacement, in fact he should be resigning right along with her because he is sadly mentally incapacitated with absolutely no chance of getting better. He will only progressively get worse.
Harris has a Constitutional duty to make sure Biden is immediately retired via the 25th amendment.
Cheadle shouldn’t be allowed to slip away from full responsibility of her incompetence, she deserves to be punished. She showed zero remorse for her poor handling of security at President Trump’s rally and actual contempt for Congress and the American people in our efforts to find the truth of how a 20 year old assassin could get close enough with enough time to fire off 8 shots at President Trump. An innocent American citizen is dead, two others are badly wounded and our nation nearly lost a man who is probably the last hope for our nation’s recovery from 4 years of a disastrous and destructive Bide/Harris administration.
Another DEI appointee gone bad if were to believe this is legit. Wouldn’t surprise me if next director is a black or Hispanic female. On another note , where’s the outrage on both sides that Harris just waltzes in and there’s no primary to see who the Americans want as their nominee. No vote , no debates , wtf. Folks , this is communism , not democracy.
If this had been the other way around, she would have been fired or forced to resign that day, not a week and 1/2 later.
The USSS, when protecting high profile people, really can’t afford to miss some of the things we have all seen via video and phone shots. Probably more people than the director made poor decisions. But she, the person at the top, is always ultimately responsible for poor decisions down the line. That is the nature of being the “top dog”. In this politcally charged environment we are living in there might not ever be a way of knowing what was deliberate and what was not; what was polically motivated and what was poor leadership. BTW, Trump did not “take a bullet”, he got hit with a bullet, a bullet less than an inch from killing him. I really am tired of hearing facts skewed to exaggerate an already horrific situation. There is great value in simply sticking to truth without commentary.
She didn’t supply Secret Service agents to protect Trump. Those people were DHS EMPLOYEES!! I believe she may be part of the plan.
The Secret Service’s level of incompetence was stunning.
Just the fact that they allowed President Trump to stand up and expose himself to further danger after the first shots were fired shows that those agents didn’t know what they were doing.
Many more people need to be terminated than simply having the director resign.
So I wonder?
American people should be angry at this because it was Obama who fueled this incident and he hate Donald Trump along with his cronies.
Cheatle is but one of the many incompetent people in the Biden administration. Think about the Secretary of Defense and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Secretary of Homeland Security and his open borders and the Secretary of Transportation and his failure to visit East Palestine in the immediate aftermath of a train derailment and toxic chemical spill. Now we have a candidate for the presidency who as “border czar” failed to do anything about it and now will not attend a speech by Israel’s Prime Minister in Washington, DC.
@Drew. I agree. Another unqualified DEI slimeball will replace her… perhaps someone from a radical Islamic country. DEI = Didn’t Earn It
GOOD! To think she’s been in there for 30 years and from what I could tell never screwed up and yet did in the end. And that screw up nearly caused Trump his life. I hope she remembers this for the rest of her life.
She should be investigated why were secret service agents replaced with full non security secret police just before the event
I’m sure this “independant investigation” will be every bit as thorough as the investigations into the last Presidential election fraud, the Steele hoax, the J6 riots, Hunter laptop, confidential files in Biden’s garage, and Biden influence peddling. Yep, they’ll root out the bad stuff for sure.
Cheatle dropped the ball. Her incompetence almost got Trump killed. She deserved to lose her job.
There are things about nonobamba/soroass/joey B.cult that AMERICANS will never know.The things that that we do are downright evil.There are many,many more involved than we know.it really is the”deep sewer”.Was the ss director incompetent or did she have orders.As for harris she couldn’t fathom the border,she sure can’t run the country,but she will have the same handlers that joey did,but will be easier to program.
Phase 2 of the cover-up complete
Also prosecute FBI, DOJ, ATF, CIA NRO NSA as well
Yep she stepping down into another Gov. Job so she can keep her retirement
benefits !! They are never fired just moved around !!
a friend of mine 12 YO son said the were inside the building and afraid or to lazy
to check who’s on top
Cheatle is an embarrassment to our country and the law enforcement/security profession. This is what DEI, affirmative action and partisan hiring or promoting has done to our country.
Now Director Cheetle has resigned, so should the site supervisor and the person in charge of the pre-site survey.
She should have resigned before testifying before Congress. She appeared to be totally ignorant in front of the nation. Is Walmart hiring? She needs a job…
Good!
Lol I love how mad they all were when its THEIR NECK on the line. if it were just the common folk ( as it usually is) they’ve already shown they don’t care.
So OF COURSE she has to resign. But I am sure she is keeping her gold plate pension and benefits and will get a nice no show job some place.
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Joe refusing to run is an act of terminating himself as Commander In Chief! He has no legitimacy as President and forfeits his remaining 4-year term. The Vice President must be sworn in immediately!
Kimberly Cheatle for US Senate