- Cheatle faced bipartisan condemnation during her appearance before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee.
- The gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.
- The incident led to investigations from multiple congressional committees and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The Secret Service, responsible for protecting current and former U.S. presidents, faces a crisis after a gunman fired at Trump from a roof overlooking the outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Cheatle faced bipartisan condemnation when she appeared before the House of Representatives Oversight Committee on Monday. She declined to answer questions from frustrated lawmakers about the security plan for the rally and how law enforcement responded to the gunman's suspicious behavior. Several Republican and Democratic lawmakers called for her resignation.
The gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, was grazed in the right ear, and one rallygoer was killed in the gunfire.
"While Director Cheatle’s resignation is a step toward accountability, we need a full review of how these security failures happened so that we can prevent them going forward," James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. "We will continue our oversight of the Secret Service."
Cheatle, who has led the agency since 2022, took responsibility for the shooting, calling it the largest failure by the Secret Service since then-President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. The Secret Service now faces investigations from multiple congressional committees and the internal watchdog of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, its parent organization, regarding its performance. President Joe Biden, who has ended his reelection campaign, has also called for an independent review.
Much of the criticism has centered on the failure to secure the roof of an industrial building where the gunman perched about 150 yards (140 m) from the stage where Trump was speaking. Former agents and lawmakers have criticized the decision to declare the rooftop outside the Secret Service security perimeter for the event.
Cheatle, who held a top security role at PepsiCo when Biden appointed her Secret Service director in 2022, had previously served 27 years in the agency. She took over after a series of scandals involving the Secret Service had damaged the reputation of the elite and insular agency.
After revelations that ten Secret Service agents had brought women, including some prostitutes, back to their hotel rooms before then-President Barack Obama's 2012 trip to Colombia, they lost their jobs. The agency also faced allegations of erasing text messages from around the time of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Congressional investigators later sought those messages.
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