UPDATE: Kimberly Cheatle has resigned from her role as Secret Service Director
The Secret Service’s failures are coming to light after the near assassination of Donald Trump. But Cheatle doesn’t want to take responsibility.
And Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is in panic mode after what Congress just threatened to do to her.
It’s common knowledge that most politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. have zero ability to take responsibility for their poor policies that negatively affect their constituent’s lives.
But why is this? The simple answer is that a lot of these people want to cling on to power for as long as possible.
And it seems as though that’s exactly what Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is doing despite her department’s utter failure during the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Democrats and Republicans Unite in Call for Secret Service Director’s Resignation After Security Failure
In a rare display of bipartisan agreement, both Democrats and Republicans on Monday urged Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign following her admission to Congress that the agency failed to protect former President Donald Trump during a recent campaign rally.
Despite acknowledging the failure, Cheatle was unable to provide crucial details on how it occurred.
Her evasive responses and frequent deferrals to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) frustrated members of the House Oversight Committee.
By the conclusion of the hearing, several Democrats joined their Republican colleagues in demanding her resignation.
Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) expressed his frustration in his closing statement, saying, “I will be joining the chairman in calling for the resignation of the director just because I think that this relationship is irretrievable at this point. And I think that the director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country. And we need to very quickly move beyond this.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) was the first Democrat on the committee to call for her resignation, stating, “I just don’t think this is partisan. If you have an assassination attempt on a president, former president, or a candidate, you need to resign.”
Khanna challenged Cheatle by referencing the resignation of then-Secret Service Director Stuart Knight after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan.
“You know what Stuart Knight did when he was in charge at the time of the Secret Service? You know what he did afterwards?” Khanna asked. “He remained on duty,” Cheatle replied.
“He resigned. He resigned,” Khanna corrected her. “That’s what Stuart Knight did. He was a Republican appointee. And he took responsibility. And I think you need to reflect.”
Despite the pressure, Cheatle stood firm, asserting that she was the “best person” for the job at that moment.
Following the hearing, Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Raskin formally requested her resignation in a letter. They wrote:
On July 13, 2024, the United States Secret Service under your leadership failed to protect former President Donald Trump from an assassination attempt that took the life of Corey Comperatore and seriously injured at least two other people. Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures. In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing. We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people.
Amidst this turmoil, President Biden, who announced on Sunday that he would not seek re-election, has been reportedly convalescing in Rehoboth Beach from another bout of the coronavirus and has not been seen by the press for several days.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
