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*As Calls for Her Resignation Mount
The Secret Service Director (SSD) Kimberly Cheatle has admitted that her agency did not fulfil its duty to safeguard Donald Trump even as she faces calls for resignation.
Cheatle had faced bipartisan criticism for her agency’s failure to safeguard former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally.
Lawmakers demanded her resignation due to security lapses that enabled a gunman to shoot at the event.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” Cheatle said during a congressional hearing.
“I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency. We are fully cooperating with ongoing investigations… I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like July 13th does not happen again.”
Cheatle described the incident as the Secret Service’s biggest operational blunder in years.
Cheatle explained that the Secret Service’s advancement process involves coordinated planning with local law enforcement and the protective’s team. She acknowledged that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman, had been spotted by local police before the shooting, using a rangefinder to gauge distance from a target.
She said authorities observed Crooks walking near the rally, looking through a rangefinder at the rooftops behind the stage where Trump eventually appeared.
Cheatle stated that the rally would have been stopped if agents had been informed of an “actual threat,” emphasising the distinction between someone flagged as suspicious and someone deemed a genuine threat.
“Director Cheatle, because Donald Trump is alive, and thank God he is, you look incompetent,” said Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio.
“If he were killed, you would look culpable.”
Cheatle, with nearly thirty years of experience at the agency, insisted she was the most suitable candidate to head the Secret Service despite the setbacks.
Recall that Trump sustained an injury to his ear, one rally attendee was fatally shot, and two others were wounded when Crooks began shooting with an AR-style rifle from a nearby rooftop shortly after Trump started his speech at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Despite criticism calls, Cheatle displayed no intention of resigning.
