The top lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee are calling on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to step down after she appeared before the panel.
On Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) noted the apparent failures that preceded the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a July 13 rally.
“The United States Secret Service under your leadership failed to protect former President Donald Trump from an assassination attempt that took the life of Corey Comperatore and seriously injured at least two other people,” the lawmakers wrote.
They went on to address her hearing before the committee:
“Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures.”
Check out the full letter below:
The letter stated, “In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing.”
“We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people,” it concluded.
During the hearing, Cheatle called the assassination attempt the “most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.” She added, “I accept responsibility for this tragedy… We are going to look into how this happened, and we are going to take corrective action to ensure it never happens again.”
She declined to share how many times the former president’s team requested more security.
Cheatle also insisted she is the “best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.”
