By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — One day after a testifying in front of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, United States Secret Service (USSS) Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned.
On Monday, Democrats and Republicans grilled Cheatle over the events that took place on Saturday, July 13, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, PA.
House Republicans held a press conference Tuesday morning and announced a resolution calling on President Biden to fire Cheatle over the Secret Service’s failure to protect Trump, as well as others who were killed and injured by the shooter.
“The U.S. Secret Service has a zero-fail mission and they failed massively to protect President Trump and rally goers on July 13,” said Rep. Nick Langworthy (R- NY), sponsor of the resolution, during the press conference this morning. “Corey Comperatore, a firefighter and a father, he lost his life that day because of that failure. And President Trump is only here by the grace of God,” Langworthy added.
Following yesterday’s hearing, Republicans and Democrats began to call for Cheatle’s resignation.
“In the time since the assassination attempt on former President Trump, what little information that has been gathered has shown a massive security failure on the part of the Secret Service. Accountability is bigger than just one person; we still need a thorough investigation into the failures of that day to ensure that the Secret Service can better protect Americans from violence in the future,” said Senator Bob Casey (D- PA) in a statement following Cheatle’s resignation.
“She did the impossible yesterday. She united the Oversight Committee on both sides of the aisle because members on both sides called for her resignation,” said Langworthy.
At the end of the House GOP press conference Tuesday morning, news broke that Cheatle had resigned.
“She must’ve been watching our press conference, I’m glad she did the right thing,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said after returning to the podium. “It is overdue, she should’ve done this at least a week ago.”
Lawmakers and the public still have questions about the security flaws and other shortfalls on July 13. House lawmakers are forming a bipartisan special task force to find more answers, seek accountability and prevent anything similar from happening again.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Speaker Johnson. “The taskforce that we’ll be putting together is going to be very important. They have three responsibilities: investigate what happened two Saturdays ago, hold those accountable- there may be others in the line of authority who were also culpable in what happened- and finally, to ensure that those mistakes do not happen again. The stakes are too high,” he added.
According to the Speaker’s Office, the committee will have subpoena authority and they will begin immediately. A final report will be due from the committee no later than December 13.
“Now we have to pick up the pieces. We have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service,” said Speaker Johnson.
“I’m glad that she came to her conclusion and resigned. Now we have a fresh start with the Secret Service. It doesn’t absolve the fact that we need a deep dive, and I think the Speaker is moving in that direction of putting a panel together to review the entirety of the events around the assassination attempt,” Langworthy said after learning of Cheatle’s resignation. “I learned more from a scroll through Twitter on any given moment than what we learned in four and a half hours of her testimony. It was really a pathetic display and she doesn’t deserve that job, she’s not capable of that job,” Langworthy added.
Congressman Langworthy visited the rally site in Butler over the weekend and was shocked at what he saw.
“I could not believe my eyes when I saw how close that building was and what a direct sightline it had to where the podium had been,” said Langworthy. “This needs to become an elite force again. The mission has to be clear. And those protectees need to have peace of mind every time they have an event.”
