WASHINGTON, Wednesday, July 24, 2024-U.S. Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle has resigned following security failures during an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Cheatle’s resignation follows intense scrutiny after a congressional hearing about the July 13 incident at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“As your director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” Cheatle wrote in a resignation letter to agency staff on Tuesday.
Lawmakers grew increasingly frustrated when she declined to answer questions about the shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this month.
In the interim, Ronald Rowe, a 24-year Secret Service veteran and the current deputy director, will serve as acting director.
The shooting at Trump’s rally, which resulted in one death and two injuries, saw a bullet graze Trump’s ear. The attacker, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by a counter-sniper.
Lawmakers criticized Cheatle for not providing sufficient information on security failures during a six-hour House Oversight Committee hearing.
Trump accused the Biden administration of failing to protect him adequately, while Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson deemed Cheatle’s resignation “overdue.”
Cheatle, appointed in 2022, has a distinguished 27-year career with the agency. She played a key role in evacuating then-Vice President Dick Cheney during the September 11, 2001, attacks and later supervised Biden’s protective detail when he was vice president.
