Secret Service Director Cheatle resigns after mounting pressure in wake of Trump assassination attempt
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday in the wake of mounting pressure following the assassination attempt on former President Trump, The Associated Press reports. Cheatle testified before the House Oversight Committee Monday, just over a week after a would-be assassin Thomas Crooks attempted to take the life of Trump at his rally in Butler, Pa. on July 13.
Trump, during his rally, ever-so-slightly turned his head—narrowly missing the bullet shot by 20-year-old suspect Crooks’ AR-15-style rifle by just a quarter of an inch. The bullet hit him, instead, in his upper right ear.
Cheatle admitted under oath that the Secret Service "on July 13th, we failed." "As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency," she said. "We must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again." Cheatle added: "Our agents, officers and support personnel understand that every day we are expected to sacrifice our lives to execute a no fail mission."
She added that "I'm not going to get into the specifics of the numbers of personnel that we had there, but we feel that there was a sufficient number of agents assigned" to the event. Trump’s security detail reportedly asked for additional security from the Secret Service, repeatedly, but those requests were not met. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has opened an investigation into the Secret Service's handling of security for the Trump rally on July 13.
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