At his confirmation hearing, Cheatle refused to resign, arguing that he was the best person to head the Secret Service, responsible for protecting the president, vice president, their families and potential presidential candidates.
But on Tuesday, Cheatle wrote a letter to Secret Service employees saying, “In light of recent events, and with a heavy heart, I have made the difficult decision to step down as Director.”
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leadership and financial infrastructure. On July 13th, we failed in that mission,” Cheatle wrote.
“Scrutiny has been intense over the last week and will continue to be intense as the pace of operations increases. As director, I take full responsibility for any security failings.”
The chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which grilled Cheatle on Monday, said in a statement about his resignation that his committee would not stop seeking “greater accountability” from the Secret Service.
“The Secret Service has a mission that is fail-proof, but under Director Cheatle’s leadership it has historically failed repeatedly,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the committee’s chairman.
“At yesterday’s Oversight Committee hearing, Director Cheatle gave us confidence that he is incapable of ensuring that the Secret Service is able to accomplish its defense mission,” Comer said. “Director Cheatle’s resignation is a step toward accountability, but to prevent security failures like this in the future, we need a thorough review of how these failures occurred.”
Republican presidential candidate Trump narrowly escaped being shot by 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks, who killed one rally attendee and seriously injured two other men.
The gunmen opened fire on Trump from the roof of a building about 150 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking.
The Secret Service did not extend its security coverage for the rally to the complex that included the building, leaving security in the area to local law enforcement.
Secret Service agents also allowed Trump to take the stage to begin speaking after local police reported a suspicious person at the event – that person turned out to be Crooks, who fired several shots at Trump before being shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Last weekend, the Secret Service acknowledged that it had mistakenly said in the aftermath of the shooting that it had not refused requests for increased security from the Trump campaign.
The Secret Service has come under fire in recent years for a series of scandals and missteps.
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