Secret Service Director Cheatle resigns in connection with Trump rally shooting

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday in connection with the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, according to a copy of a letter sent to agency staff obtained by The Washington Post.

“As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” Cheatle wrote. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that, I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director.”
The attack was the first against a U.S. leader on the elite protective agency’s watch in more than 40 years. Cheatle, a veteran Secret Service agent, had called the security failure involving a gunman shooting from an apparently unsecured roof at a Trump presidential campaign rally July 13 unacceptable and acknowledged that “the buck stops with me.”
She initially had said she would not resign and would cooperate with investigations into the shooting. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week that he had “100 percent confidence” in her abilities as Secret Service director, and a spokeswoman for President Biden said he supported her as well.
At a House oversight hearing Monday Cheatle signaled that she hoped to stay on the job and believed she was the best person for the position. But several lawmakers in both parties disagreed, saying she failed to answer detailed questions about what went wrong at the Trump rally and had lost their confidence
Several Republican lawmakers called on Cheatle to step aside, saying they had lost confidence in her ability to lead the agency that safeguards U.S. and foreign leaders.
“Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle should resign immediately,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) wrote Monday on X.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called for new leadership at the agency on Wednesday as Cheatle oversaw protective services at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“Last week’s near-assassination of former President Trump was a grave attack on American democracy,” he wrote on X. “The nation deserves answers and accountability. New leadership at the Secret Service would be an important step in that direction.”
On Wednesday night, a group of Republicans furious over the assassination attempt trailed Cheatle through Fiserv Forum at the convention, demanding that she explain the security failures.
“This was an assassination attempt!” yelled Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, according to a video of the confrontation obtained by The Washington Post. “You owe the people answers! You owe President Trump answers!”
She and others expressed frustration that Cheatle did not answer their questions about the lapses.
“This is one of the greatest security failures in the history of the agency,” Blackburn said in a statement. “She can run but she cannot hide. She is a failed leader and she needs to immediately step down from her position.”
Trump, who has said he was struck by a bullet that “pierced” his right ear, wore a bandage over it as he attended the convention. The attack killed one man and gravely wounded two others.
The shooting was the first time in decades that a U.S. leader was attacked while under Secret Service protection. In 1981, a gunman fired at President Ronald Reagan in Washington, wounding the president and three others.
Top officials at the U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied requests for additional personnel and equipment sought by Trump’s security detail in the two years leading up to the rally shooting in Pennsylvania, according to four people familiar with the requests.
Agents charged with protecting Trump requested magnetometers and more agents to screen attendees at large public gatherings he attended, as well as additional snipers and specialty teams at other outdoor events, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive security discussions. The requests were sometimes denied by senior officials at the agency who cited reasons including a lack of resources at an agency that has struggled with staffing shortages, they said.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement Wednesday night that Cheatle would not resign.
Cheatle said after the shooting that the Secret Service is cooperating with multiple investigations into the shooting, including the criminal probe led by the FBI and an independent review ordered by Biden.
When Biden named Cheatle as his Secret Service director in 2022, some inside the agency opposed her appointment, according to a half-dozen written complaints Secret Service agents sent to The Post around that time and in the two years since.
In the complaints, her critics pointed to Cheatle’s lack of experience working in a senior post on a presidential protection detail — considered by many to be the pinnacle of agency service — and saying later in her tenure that she was excessively focused on hiring and promoting more women agents.
Cheatle’s handling of the shooting has further eroded support for her leadership inside the agency, according to a dozen current and former Secret Service officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution. Many agents and Secret Service alumni were disturbed by the failure to sufficiently secure the rooftop the gunman scaled, they said.
In addition, six of the former agents, all of whom have served in presidential protection details, told The Post that they found Cheatle’s public statements about security for the Butler, Pa., campaign event embarrassing.
They said they were particularly outraged by two comments she made in an interview with ABC News that aired days after the shooting.