Secret Service Director Resigns Following Trump Shooting
(Bloomberg) -- US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is stepping down after taking responsibility for security failures at a campaign rally where former President Donald Trump was shot.
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A political firestorm engulfed the agency after the July 13 shooting with Republican and Democratic lawmakers calling for Cheatle to resign. The attack, which left Trump wounded and one person dead, marked the closest anyone had come to assassinating a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
“As a leader, it takes honor, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in public service,” President Joe Biden said 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.”
The agency and Cheatle herself faced a barrage of criticism from lawmakers, former homeland security officials, and others about why the perimeter of Trump’s rally was left vulnerable to the attack. US officials have said that the assailant fired from the roof of a nearby building.
Cheatle has more than two decades of experience with the Secret Service, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security and responsible for protecting presidents, top candidates and other public officials. Immediately prior to taking the helm of the agency in 2022, Cheatle had been working in the private sector as a senior director of global security for PepsiCo Inc.
Ronald Rowe was tapped by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Secret Service as its acting director. Rowe has served as the agency’s deputy director since April 2023, and is a 24-year veteran of the service.
The shooting was one of the most serious lapses in the Secret Service’s history. Cheatle sent a note to staff on Tuesday announcing she would step down, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Cheatle told lawmakers on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability at a Monday hearing that the agency had “failed.” She also revealed that the service was made aware of a suspicious person between two and five times on the day of the rally.
“She did the right thing,” Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat and ranking member of the House Oversight panel said in an interview Tuesday. “There were tremendous lapses that could have led to a catastrophe.”
Lawmakers Look Ahead
Lawmakers are now looking ahead to Cheatle’s replacement and more oversight for the position.
“It takes a different kind of leadership,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, a Republican from Tennessee, said in a hallway interview. “I get that she had the law enforcement experience, she had the Secret Service experience, but it takes incredible managerial skills and leadership to set a culture in an organization that big.”
A bipartisan pair of senators is also pushing to make the Secret Service director position subject to Senate confirmation and 10-year terms in new legislation. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada announced their proposal Tuesday.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, called Cheatle’s resignation “overdue.”
“I am happy to see that she has heeded the calls of both Republicans and Democrats,” Johnson said. “Now we have to pick up the pieces, we have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service as an agency.”
Johnson noted that a newly announced bipartisan House task force on the assassination attempt would investigate if “others in the line of authority” were responsible for the day’s mistakes.
Rowe, Cheatle’s replacement, will face lawmakers’ concerns already having some ties to Capitol Hill. He previously served as the agency’s assistant director for legislative affairs, among other roles.
“I appreciate his willingness to lead the Secret Service at this incredibly challenging moment, as the agency works to get to the bottom of exactly what happened on July 13 and cooperate with ongoing investigations and Congressional oversight,” Mayorkas said in a statement announcing his appointment.
Some conservative critics have also questioned whether the Secret Service provided all the security resources Trump’s campaign requested. The agency has disputed claims that it denied any requests for the Pennsylvania rally, but acknowledged it hasn’t provided all resources Trump’s team had previously sought.
US officials have said 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed up on a roof within sight of the outdoor stage at Butler, Pennsylvania, and fired a semi-automatic rifle, injuring Trump, killing an attendee and wounding two others. A Secret Service sharpshooter then killed Crooks.
Mayorkas has launched an independent review of the incident led by former officials from Democratic and Republican administrations.
(Updates with additional reporting throughout)
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