Kimberly Cheatle has resigned as director of the US Secret Service, after refusing to do so in the wake of the attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
A shooter nicked Trump’s ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, killing one person in the audience and injuring two others before Secret Service snipers managed to neutralize him. Thomas Crooks was able to position himself on a roof that had a clear shot to where Trump was speaking, which the protective detail had inexplicably left unguarded.
Cheatle tendered her resignation on Tuesday morning, one day after an acrimonious congressional hearing during which both Republicans and Democrats accused her of withholding information and refusing to take responsibility for security failures at the rally.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed,” Cheatle told the House Oversight Committee on Monday, describing the Butler shooting as the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”
Even though Cheatle took “full responsibility” for the lapse at the congressional hearing, she insisted she was “the best person” to lead the agency at this time, and stated that she had “full confidence in the men and women of the Secret Service.”
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