Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned after the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania last week.
On July 13, a 20-year-old man perched on a nearby warehouse rooftop fired several shots at Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, striking the former president in the right ear. One rallygoer was killed, and two others were wounded. The gunman was fatally shot by a Secret Service sniper.
Several investigations have been launched into the attack. In addition to congressional inquiries, the FBI is conducting a criminal probe and the Secret Service is performing an internal investigation, Cheatle told Congress on Monday.
In the days that followed, Cheatle faced numerous calls for clarity about how such an attack could have happened, including a dramatic hallway confrontation with Republican U.S. Senators at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week.
In an email to staff on Tuesday announcing her resignation, Cheatle admitted that the agency "fell short" on its mission to protect the country's leaders.
"The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases," Cheatle wrote. "As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse."
The embattled Secret Service chief faced bipartisan calls for her resignation. The announcement comes hours after Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic Leader announced a bipartisan task force to investigate the attack, and one day after congressional lawmakers grilled Cheatle over security lapses at a contentious hearing.
"I'm glad she did the right thing," Johnson said at a press conference on Tuesday. "The immediate reaction to her resignation is that it is overdue. She should have done this at least a week ago. I'm happy to see that. I'm happy to to see that she has heeded the call of both Republicans and Democrats."
"Now we have to pick up the pieces," he continued. "We have to rebuild the American people's faith and trust in the Secret Service. As an agency, it has an incredibly important responsibility in protecting presidents, former presidents and other officials in the executive branch, and we've got a lot of work to do."
The message of "overdue" appeared to be one echoed by lawmakers in Washington, particularly among House Republicans, who were planning legislative efforts to force Cheatle's ouster.
"The resignation of USSS Director Cheatle is long overdue," New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House GOP conference chair, wrote on social media. "The failure to answer basic questions over the last ten days and at yesterday’s Congressional hearing was a disgrace. House Republicans will not rest until we have 100% transparency and accountability."
"This is 10 days overdue," wrote New York Rep. Mike Lawler on X, formerly known as Twitter. "This was a colossal failure on the part of the agency and requires transparency and accountability. Director Cheatle provided neither in her testimony yesterday."
"Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation is welcome but overdue," said Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy. "This is only the beginning of accountability for an incredible failure to protect a former president and leading candidate for that office."
In a post on social media after the news broke, Trump did not specificaly address Cheatle's resignation, but accused the Biden administration of failing to "properly protect" him.
"I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy," he wrote on Truth Social. "IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!”
In a statement, President Joe Biden, who immediately ordered an independent security review into the shooting after it took place, expressed gratitude for Cheatle's "decades of public service" and said it "takes honor, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in 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," the president said. "We all know what happened that day can never happen again. As we move forward, I wish Kim all the best, and I will plan to appoint a new Director soon."
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Tuesday that Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe will take over as the head of the agency in an acting capacity.
In a House Oversight Committee hearing Monday, members of both parties called for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign.
"Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures," committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in a statement following Monday’s hearing.
"In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing," they continued. "We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people."