The head of the Secret Service resigned on Tuesday amid growing criticism over security lapses in the assassination attempt against former President Trump.
Kimberly Cheatle faces growing calls to resign from both Democrats and Republicans.
“I take full responsibility for the security breach,” she said in an email to employees on Tuesday. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to resign as your director.”
She made a shocking admission on Monday that local authorities observed and filmed the man who shot Trump 18 minutes before the former president took the stage at a rally in Pennsylvania.
It was one of several security breaches revealed during congressional hearings that Chittle called the agency’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.
The new message sparked outrage among lawmakers and led to a rare accord between House Oversight Committee Chairman James R. Cuomo Jr. (R-Ky.) and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who called She resigned.
“Nor did I see members of both parties at today’s hearing confused and angry about the shocking operational failures that led to this disaster,” Raskin said.
On July 13, at a campaign event in Pennsylvania, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight shots at Trump from the roof, injuring his ear and causing One spectator died and two others were injured. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper less than 10 seconds after the first shot.
But questions raised by members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about how a man with a rifle was able to get within firing range of the former president — on a rooftop that was not discovered by the Secret Service — went largely unanswered.
