Kimberly Cheatle faces calls from both parties to ‘immediately’ resign after Trump assassination attempt
A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House Oversight Committee is calling for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign after she failed to provide satisfactory answers during a hearing on the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) discussed their reasons for demanding Cheatle’s resignation during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.” They expressed frustration with her refusal to answer most questions posed by Congress, citing the ongoing criminal investigation as the reason for her silence.
“Anybody that’s watched the Oversight Committee knows we don’t always agree on the Oversight Committee, but on this, it was unanimous,” Donalds told Lawrence Jones on Tuesday. “She needs to leave immediately. Should’ve happened yesterday, needs to happen today. The mission of the Secret Service is to protect all former presidents and their families, as well as other key personnel and leadership.”
“This is not about just President Trump, although his life was put in jeopardy,” he continued. “It’s about President Obama, President Clinton, President Bush, and President Biden. This is a very serious matter. The members of Congress are not going to stop calling for her to go.”
Cheatle, who testified under subpoena on Monday, acknowledged that the Secret Service “failed” its mission on July 13. Despite this admission, she made it clear that she would not step down from her position.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed,” Cheatle said in her opening statement. “As director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency. We are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations. We must learn what happened, and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again.”
Khanna emphasized the bipartisan nature of the issue, stating, “This is not a partisan issue. There was a failure in protecting the former president and a presidential candidate, and she simply doesn’t have the confidence of the nation. There are a lot of people who do not trust her, so she needs to step aside.”
Khanna questioned Cheatle during the hearing, asking if she would consider the assassination attempt “the most serious security lapse since President Reagan was shot in 1981.” Cheatle agreed, which Khanna used to bolster his argument for her resignation. Despite these calls, Cheatle has so far refused to step down.
“She was being very evasive, stonewalling,” Donalds said. “Like Ro said, not providing any confidence to any member on Capitol Hill that she’s prepared to do the necessary work to fix what went wrong that day and to make sure it doesn’t happen again. As far as I’m concerned, she should resign. She should be fired. I’m surprised she’s still the head of the Secret Service to this day.”
“There has to be real accountability,” Donalds continued. “We can’t do the political thing, and everybody just says, ‘I’m going to be responsible. I’m going to own this. It’s on my watch. I’m deeply sorry.’ That’s not good enough. The Secret Service has a mission unique among federal agencies. This is very serious. She needs to go.”
As the investigation into the assassination attempt continues, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are united in their demand for Cheatle’s resignation, underscoring the gravity of the security lapse and the need for accountability in protecting the nation’s leaders.