After hours of heated exchanges at the hearing of the Congressional Oversight Committee on July 22, where it was clearly demonstrated that the Secret Service had allowed gross incompetence during the July 13 Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle has resigned. “In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director,” Cheatle wrote in a statement. During the July 13 event where former President Donald Trump was nearly murdered, the agency “fell short” of its mission to “to protect our nation’s leaders,” she wrote. In her place, Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald L. Rowe, Jr. has been appointed Acting Director, the Department of Homeland Security announced.
Usually there is plenty of political polarization on Capitol Hill, but the two parties were united with disgust over the stonewalling and apparent incompetence of Cheatle during the hearing on July 22. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member on the committee, said that he “didn’t see any daylight between the members of the two parties today at the hearing, in terms of our bafflement and outrage.” While the Secret Service clearly may not want to publicly announce its tactics and procedures, Cheatle could not, or would not answer even simple questions over bureaucratic issues. It often appeared that the committee members were better informed about her agency than she was. People in the chamber broke into laughter at her when she was asked if she could produce a timeline of the events during the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, and she answered that she could produce the timeline but without any specifics.
Among the details Cheatle refused to answer, and which have significant implications for ongoing investigations, were: Did the shooter act alone? And how many bullet shells were found next to the shooter’s body? Her refusal to answer these questions and others made at least some attending believe that they had more questions after the hearing than they had before. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) tweeted later on July 22: “After leaving the oversight briefing this morning, I’m more convinced than ever that Crooks wasn’t working alone,” referring to alleged shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) announced on July 23 that they would form a bipartisan task force to further investigate the assassination attempt against former President Trump. They released a statement which read: “The security failures that allowed an assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life are shocking…. The task force will be empowered with subpoena authority and will move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and make certain such failures never happen again.”
