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US Secret Service director resigns over Trump assassination attempt
Kimberly Cheatle said the 'buck stops with me' in an interview given to US media after the attempted murder of the former president
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Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the US Secret Service, announced her resignation on Tuesday, according to US reports.
Cheatle came under fire after the assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump earlier in July during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
"The buck stops with me," she said in an interview with ABC News. "I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary."
"I take full responsibility for the security lapse," she said in the email, as cited by the Associated Press (AP). "In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director."
House Speaker Mike Johnson welcomed her resignation, saying it was "long overdue."
On Monday, she appeared before a congressional committee over the security failures from the Butler rally. This, she told lawmakers, was the Secret Service’s "most significant operational failure," in decades.
Bethel Park native Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to get within 471 feet of the president, despite Secret Service presence spread throughout the rally, before firing several shots. One of them grazed Trump’s ear, while a rally attendee was killed – two more were wounded.
Politicians from both Republican and Democratic parties railed her after she failed to answer questions about the ongoing investigation into the incident.
Cheatle vacating her post comes after Republican Representative Nancy Mace suggested she tender her resignation, to which she said, "No, thank you." She stressed she was still the "right person" to lead the service, which protects both incumbent and past US presidents and their families.