(DailyDig.com) – Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, resigned her position on July 23. The day prior to her resignation, she faced questioning from a congressional hearing regarding the failure of the Secret Service to protect former President Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspect, shot Trump on July 13 while he was addressing the rally attendees. The bullet hit Trump’s right ear, passing through the top of the ear. If Trump hadn’t turned his head slightly prior to the bullet reaching him, he would have received a fatal head wound. As the assassination attempt continued, several shots rang out, killing one man and wounding two others seriously.
After many shots were fired, Secret Service snipers shot and killed the suspected assassin.
Legislators asked Cheatle several important questions during the hearing, but she was either unwilling or unable to respond, which hindered the unraveling of the agency’s failure to prevent an assassin from shooting Trump. She did admit that an operational failure was most significant, as calls for her dismissal or resignation came from both Republicans and Democrats.
Trump has spoken about the failure of the Secret Service in interviews and on social media. He stated that his campaign repeatedly requested additional protection on the sites months prior to the assassination attempt, but either received no response or faced rejection. He asserted that the large crowds his rallies drew warranted additional protection for him and the attendees.
He also accused Biden’s administration of failing to properly provide protection for him, forcing him to “take a bullet.” He added that, since the attempted assassination, the Secret Service has made sizable improvements.
In Cheatle’s letter sent to the Secret Service to announce her resignation, she stated that on July 13, they failed to uphold their mission to protect the nation’s leaders. She wrote that, as their director, she took full responsibility for the failure. The additional investigation into the failure will continue, and because of that, she stated that she was resigning her post as director.
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