Kimberley Cheatle has resigned her position as director of the United States Secret Service after facing a grilling in an oversight committee meeting on Monday. Cheatle has been severely criticized for the way she has handled the investigation of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. She called her actions a complete failure. Her resignation was demanded by various members of the committee to quit during the meeting, during which she evaded giving direct answers to questions and appeared to be unprepared for their questions. In a letter sent to the US Secret Service on Tuesday, Cheatle wrote, "To the Men and Women of the US Secret Service, the Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure. On July 13th, we fell short on that mission." "As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse." "We do not retreat from challenge," she wrote. "However, I do not want my calls for resignation to be a distraction from the great work each and every one of you do towards our vital mission." "In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director," she wrote. "As I stated in the hearing yesterday, all of you are worthy of trust and confidence. You deserve the nation’s support in carrying out our critical mission." In a statement, Donald Trump said, “She never gave me proper protection so I ended up having to take a bullet for democracy.” Trump told FOX Digital, “Many requests were made by on-site Secret Service for more people, always with a turn down or no response. I have the biggest crowds in history and they should be treated accordingly.” House Republicans, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, had been calling on Cheatle to resign, calling her and the agency under her watch "the face of incompetence," reports FOX News. "It is my firm belief, Director Cheatle, that you should resign," Comer said during the hearing. "The safety of Secret Service protectees is not based on their political affiliation. And the bottom line is that under Director Cheatle’s leadership, we question whether anyone is safe." Shortly after the attack on Trump, Cheatle said a security lapse was partially due to the roof from which the shots were fired, which fired up her critics. "That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there's a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn't want to put somebody up on a sloped roof," she said at the time. "And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside." "The building was outside of the perimeter on the day of the visit. But again, that is one of the things that during the investigation, we want to take a look at and determine whether or not other decisions should have been made." Members of the House Committee called for her resignation on Monday or that Joe Biden fire her, which he didn’t do. But the president said in a statement on Tuesday, “Jill and I are grateful to Director Kim Cheatle for her decades of public service.” “The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions. We all know what happened that day can never happen again.” On FOX News, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) responded to Biden’s letter, “Good grief, what do you have to do to get fired from this administration? The only people who have been fired have been four staff who smoked pot.” “But when you have someone who almost gets the former president of the United States killed, and does get an individual killed and other people wounded, and you don’t get fired?” “What you get is a letter saying ‘gee, we’re sorry to see you go kind-of-thing.’” “I’m incensed as much by the failure of the Biden administration, at the very top, to once again signal to the American people that he cares more about the American people than he cares about himself and I think this letter reflects more personal care than it does patriotic care.”
