Kimberly Cheatle resigns as director of US Secret Service following attempt on Trump's life

In the lead-up to her resignation Tuesday morning, Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle endured a bipartisan beatdown at the hands of the House Oversight Committee.

The hearing was about the glaring security failures of the famed federal law enforcement agency and how agents let an unassuming 20-year-old nearly kill former President Donald Trump from roughly 500 feet from where Trump was speaking.

While she made some key admissions during the House hearing, Cheatle was also torched for not being transparent with information about the attempted assassination.

As both Democrats and Republicans on the committee slammed her over the events of July 13, Cheatle admitted that the attempt on Trump's life was the "most significant operational failure" for the Secret Service in decades.

In the days after the assassination attempt, Cheatle resisted growing calls for her resignation.

However, less than 24 hours after the House hearing, she sent a memo to her colleagues announcing her decision to resign while taking full responsibility for the security failures of that day.

In Cheatle’s resignation letter she says, “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.“

Fell short?! That’s how she describes J13?

It was a total failure! What a disgrace. pic.twitter.com/ZsoSYppIXA

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) July 23, 2024

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland (D) was one of several Democrats who joined Republicans in calling for Cheatle's resignation.

"This relationship is irretrievable at this point and I think that the director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country, and we need to quickly move beyond this," Raskin said during the hearing.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) to the matter to the next level as she filed a privileged resolution to begin impeachment proceedings against Cheatle.

CBS News noted:

Cheatle also told lawmakers that she believes she is the "best person to lead the Secret Service at this time," but acknowledged that the agency failed in its mission to protect the nation's leaders.

She attempted to quell concerns of future failures, telling the committee, "We must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure an incident like July 13th does not happen again."

While her resignation satisfied some, many others want more accountability in the way of an investigation into Cheatle and her former agency.

Only time will tell what investigators find when they take a fine-tooth comb through the situation.