By Steve Neavling
Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House harshly criticized Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle during a more than four-hour hearing in which some congressional members called on her to resign following security lapses involving the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump.
Among those calling on Cheatle to resign were House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., The Washington Post reports.
“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,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter published after the hearing.
“In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing.”
It was the first hearing since the shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
Raskin emphasized that both parties were united in their “bafflement and outrage” over the shocking failures that led to the shooting.
In her opening remarks, Cheatle was calm and stoic.
“This is the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades,” she said. “I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency.”
Cheatle, who became director in September 2022, has said she has no plans to resign.
