Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned from her position, a day after she was grilled by lawmakers of both major political parties regarding the Secret Service's failure to prevent the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump, two sources familiar with the decision told ABC News.
Cheatle was berated for hours Monday by Republicans and Democrats, repeatedly angering lawmakers by evading questions about the investigation during the first hearing over the July 13 assassination attempt . Cheatle called the attempt on Trump's life the Secret Service's "most significant operational failure" in decades, and vowed to "move heaven and earth" to get to the bottom of what went wrong and make sure there's no repeat of it.
"The Secret Service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. On July 13th, we failed," she told lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally. She also revealed that the roof from which Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire had been identified as a potential vulnerability days before the rally. Cheatle said she apologized to Trump in a phone call after the assassination attempt.
Yet Cheatle remained defiant that she was the "right person" to lead the Secret Service, even as she said she takes full responsibility the security lapses. When Republican Rep. Nancy Mace suggested Cheatle begin drafting her resignation letter from the hearing room, Cheatle responded, "No, thank you."
