US Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle has resigned following security failures related to an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“As your director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” Ms. Cheatle stated in her resignation letter to agency staff.
Both Democrats and Republicans had called for her resignation after a contentious congressional hearing on Monday regarding the shooting.
Lawmakers expressed frustration when she refused to answer questions about the incident at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this month.
In her resignation letter on Tuesday, Ms. Cheatle emphasized that she had always “put the needs of the agency first” and made her decision “with a heavy heart.”
“The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue as our operational tempo increases,” she said.
“I do not want my resignation to distract from the great work each and every one of you do towards our vital mission.”
President Joe Biden expressed gratitude for her decades of public service in a statement.
“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,” he said.
President Biden announced plans to appoint a new director soon. In the interim, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has appointed Ronald Rowe as acting director of the agency.
Mr. Rowe, a 24-year Secret Service veteran, has served as deputy director since April 2023.
President Biden appointed Ms. Cheatle to head the Secret Service in 2022. She had previously served 27 years at the agency in various roles, including evacuating then Vice-President Dick Cheney from the White House during the September 11, 2001, attacks and supervising Mr. Biden’s protective detail when he was vice president.
Her leadership came under scrutiny after the shooting at Trump’s July 13 rally, where a bullet grazed the former president’s ear, leaving one audience member dead and two others badly wounded.
During a six-hour House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing, lawmakers questioned Ms. Cheatle about the security preparations for the rally. She accepted responsibility for the security lapses but resisted calls to resign, calling the shooting “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”
Witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man, suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks, with a rifle on a rooftop at the rally minutes before shots were fired. Crooks was killed by a counter-sniper shortly afterward.
Security and law enforcement officers from multiple agencies were present at the rally. Despite her testimony, Ms. Cheatle did not provide new information on how Crooks accessed the roof or why Trump was allowed to take the stage.