WASHINGTON, July 23 — United States (US) Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after the agency came under harsh scrutiny for its failure to stop a would-be assassin from wounding former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally, the White House said today.
The Secret Service, which is responsible for the protection of current and former US presidents, faces a crisis after a gunman was able to fire on Trump from a roof overlooking the outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
"The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions.
"We all know what happened that day can never happen again," President Joe Biden said in a statement. Cheatle's successor will be appointed soon.
She faced bipartisan condemnation when she appeared before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee yesterday, declining to answer questions from frustrated lawmakers about the security plan for the rally and how law enforcement responded to the gunman's suspicious behaviour.
Several Republican and Democratic lawmakers had called on her to resign.
Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, was grazed in the right ear and one rallygoer was killed in the gunfire. The gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
"While Director Cheatle’s resignation is a step toward accountability, we need a full review of how these security failures happened so that we can prevent them going forward
"We will continue our oversight of the Secret Service," said House Oversight Committee chair James Comer in a statement.
Cheatle, who has led the agency since 2022, told lawmakers she took responsibility for the shooting, calling it the largest failure by the Secret Service since then-President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
Multiple congressional committees and the internal watchdog of the US Department of Homeland Security, its parent organisation, are investigating the Secret Service's performance. President Joe Biden, who has ended his reelection campaign, has also called for an independent review.
Much of the criticism has focused on the failure to secure the roof of an industrial building where the gunman was perched about 140 metres from the stage where Trump was speaking.
The rooftop was declared outside the Secret Service security perimeter for the event, a decision criticised by former agents and lawmakers.
Cheatle held a top security role at PepsiCo when Biden named her Secret Service director in 2022. She previously served 27 years in the agency.
She took over following a series of scandals involving the Secret Service that scarred the reputation of an elite and insular agency.
Ten Secret Service agents lost their jobs after revelations they brought women, some of them prostitutes, back to their hotel rooms ahead of a trip to Colombia by then-President Barack Obama in 2012.
The agency also faced allegations that it erased text messages from around the time of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Those messages were later sought by a congressional panel probing the riot.
— Reuters
