Secret Service chief faces calls to resign after Trump attack

When Kimberly Cheatle was leading Secret Service operations to protect the U.S. president and other dignitaries, she said she spoke to agents in training about the “tremendous responsibility” of their job.

“This agency and the Secret Service have a zero-error mission,” Cheatle, now the agency’s director, said during a Secret Service podcast called “Standing Post” in 2021. “They have to come every day prepared and ready for action.”

Now, the Secret Service and its director are under intense scrutiny for that “zero failure” mission after the Attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump during a rally on July 13 in Pennsylvania that injured his ear.

Lawmakers and others across the political spectrum are questioning how a gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be under close surveillance.

Cheatle, who is set to testify before lawmakers on Monday after congressional committees and the Biden administration launched a series of investigations, told ABC News that the shooting was “unacceptable.” Asked who bore the most responsibility, he said it was ultimately the Secret Service that protected the former president.

“The buck stops with me,” Cheatle said. “I am the director of the Secret Service.” She added that she has no plans to resign and that she has the backing of the administration so far.

In August 2022, Biden tapped Cheatle to lead an agency with a history of scandals, and she sought to expand diversity in hiring, especially for women, at the male-dominated service.

Cheatle, the second woman to lead the Secret Service, worked her way up for 27 years before leaving in 2021 to work as a security executive at PepsiCo. Biden brought her back.

Now he faces his most serious challenge: figuring out what went wrong with the agency’s core responsibility of protecting presidents, and whether he can maintain support — or even his job — to make changes.

Details are still emerging about signs of trouble on the day of the assassination attempt, including the steps taken by the Secret Service and local authorities to secure the building that the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, climbed, about 150 yards from where Trump was speaking. Two people were injured and Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief present at the rally, was killed.

The Biden administration has ordered an independent review of security at the rally. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has opened three investigations, and congressional committees have launched others as calls mount for Cheatle to resign. Two Republican senators demanding answers followed her as she walked through the Republican National Convention last week.

“The nation deserves answers and accountability,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., posted on Twitter. “New leadership at the Secret Service would be an important step in that direction.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on X that Biden should fire Cheatle immediately, highlighting Comperatore’s death and adding that “we were … millimeters away from losing President Trump. It’s inexcusable.”

Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said in a statement Saturday that “the evidence that has come to light has shown unacceptable operational failures” and that he would not trust Cheatle’s leadership if she remained in office.

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has subpoenaed Cheatle to appear Monday, and he is expected to appear.

Since the shooting, Cheatle and the Secret Service agents who protected Trump have faced scathing criticism and questions about whether Cheatle lowered hiring standards. Her supporters insist that has not happened.

“It is disrespectful to the women of the Department of Homeland Security’s Secret Service, and to law enforcement officers across the country, to imply that their gender disqualifies them from serving the nation and their communities,” said Kristie Canegallo, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Like many law enforcement agencies, the Secret Service has struggled to attract and retain agents and officers.

Women make up about 24% of the staff, according to the agency’s website. In a May 2023 interview with CBS News, Cheatle said she was aware of the “need to attract diverse candidates and ensure that we are developing and providing opportunities for everyone in our workforce, and particularly women.”

Two years ago, Cheatle took charge of the agency of 7,800 special agents, uniformed officers and other personnel whose primary purpose is to protect presidents, vice presidents, their families, former presidents and others. In announcing her appointment, Biden said Cheatle had served on his vice presidential team and called her a “distinguished law enforcement professional with exceptional leadership skills” who had his “complete confidence.”

Cheatle replaced James M. Murray as several congressional committees and an internal watchdog investigated missing text messages from when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Secret Service says the messages were deleted during a technology transition.

Further back in time, there have been other problems within the Secret Service, including a prostitution scandal before President Barack Obama’s trip to Colombia in 2012 and a man who jumped the White House fence in 2014 and entered the building.

The Department of Homeland Security did not make Cheatle available for an interview, but Canegallo defended his work.

Canegallo said Cheatle championed a law passed this year authorizing overtime pay for Secret Service agents, and successfully oversaw nine high-profile events, such as political conventions. The agency under his leadership protected Biden during his trip to Ukraine without a hitch, Canegallo added.

During the podcast, Cheatle discussed how much planning goes into the events the Secret Service oversees — from bad weather and COVID-19 risk to threats of violence.

“It’s our job to sit back and think ‘What if?’ for every potential threat and scenario,” he said.

Cheatle applied for a job with the Secret Service while still in college. She was told to wait until she graduated, and mentioned on the podcast that it ultimately took her just over two years to be hired: “I was pretty persistent.”

After her training, she was assigned to the Detroit office, where she spent just over four years. Cheatle was transferred to Washington, where she worked on the Treasury Secretary’s detail, and protected then-Vice President Dick Cheney, including during the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Other positions during his time with the agency include Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Field Office and Special Agent in Charge of the agency’s training facility in Maryland.

She became the first woman to be named deputy director of protective operations, the division that provides security for the president and other dignitaries, where she oversaw a $133.5 million budget.

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