US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, following intense pressure after a security breach during a campaign rally where a gunman wounded former President Donald Trump.
Cheatle’s resignation came a day after she admitted the agency’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt at a July 13 event in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Facing bipartisan calls for her resignation, Cheatle acknowledged the incident as a significant lapse in security. “This represents the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades,” she stated during her appearance before a congressional committee on Monday. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers had urged her to step down, frustrated by her refusal to disclose details about the attack due to ongoing investigations.
The incident occurred when a 20-year-old armed with an AR-style assault rifle opened fire just minutes into Trump’s speech. Positioned on the roof of a nearby building, the shooter was neutralized by a Secret Service sniper within 30 seconds after he fired the first of eight shots.
Investigators determined that the gunman, from a town approximately 50 miles from Butler, acted alone without clear ideological or political motives. The attack resulted in serious injuries to two rally attendees and the death of 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter Corey Comperatore.
Trump’s former physician, Ronny Jackson, revealed over the weekend that the former president suffered a two-centimetre gunshot wound to his right ear, narrowly missing his head.
Before her tenure as the Secret Service Director, Cheatle had served 27 years with the agency. She left in 2021 to join PepsiCo as the head of security for North America and was appointed to lead the Secret Service by President Joe Biden in 2022.
