US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, a day after acknowledging that the agency failed in its mission to prevent an assassination attempt against Ex-President Donald Trump.
Kimberly Cheatle was facing huge questions and was forced to step down after a 20-year-old gunman wounded the former Republican president and current White House candidate at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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In her resignation letter, obtained from a senior official who received it, Cheatle wrote that the “scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases.” She added she takes “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 wrote.
Cheatle’s resignation comes a day after she faced questions from angry lawmakers from both parties who were exasperated over the Secret Service’s failure to protect Trump.
She called it “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.”
Both Republicans and Democrats called on Cheatle to resign. She drew the ire of lawmakers from both parties by refusing to provide specific details about the attack, citing the existence of multiple active investigations.
The gunman opened fire on Trump with an AR-style assault rifle just minutes after he began speaking at the campaign event.
Perched on the roof of a nearby building, he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper less than 30 seconds after firing the first of eight shots.
Investigators have concluded the young man, who lived in a town about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Butler, acted alone, and have not been able to identify any strong ideological or political leanings.
Two rally attendees were seriously wounded and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter, Corey Comperatore, was shot dead.
Trump’s former physician said over the weekend that the Republican candidate sustained a two-centimeter (almost one inch) gunshot wound on his right ear.
“The bullet passed, coming less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear,” said ex-White House physician Ronny Jackson.
Cheatle served as a Secret Service agent for 27 years before leaving in 2021 to become the head of security in North America for PepsiCo.
She was named to head the agency by President Joe Biden in 2022.
