Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is, quite frankly, the luckiest person in Washington DC at the moment.

Cheatle lucked out in that Donald Trump did not get his head blown off on her watch. She has lucked out in that Joe Biden is too distracted or too senile to demand her resignation, or that he didn’t just fire her outright. And she has lucked out with her testimony in front of the House Oversight Committee today, because if it were up to the Committee, she would be instantly unemployed.

Honestly, I have never seen a level of bipartisan anger like this at a committee hearing. Both sides were equally pissed off at Kimberly Cheatle, and both sides came with very pointed questions that she is either unwilling or unable to give answers to. It’s honestly hard to tell in watching the testimony if Cheatle is incompetent or maliciously noncompliant. Yes, “both” would also be an option in this case.

This was an equal opportunity roasting by both sides of the aisle. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) addressed the denial of additional security for the Trump campaign. Remember, the Secret Service claimed that there was no request for additional security that they denied. Then the Secret Service admitted that some of those requests were denied. Jordan wanted an explanation. Cheatle had no answers.

The Secret Service has denied claims that it rejected requests for additional security at the July 13 rally at which Trump was shot, but the agency later acknowledged it had rejected such requests previously.

“So which is it? Because both statements can’t be true. Were you guessing or lying when you said you didn’t turn down a request from President Trump’s detail?” Jordan asked Cheatle.

“Neither,” Cheatle responded. “What I can tell you is that for the event in Butler, there were no requests that were denied,” she added, referring to the Pennsylvania town where Trump’s rally was held.

“Maybe they got tired of asking,” Jordan fired back. “Maybe you turned them down so darn much they said, ‘Not worth asking!’”

Cheatle wouldn’t say how many times Trump’s team had asked for more personnel, but she defended the agency’s decision.

“A denial of a request does not equal a vulnerability. There are a number of ways that threats and risks can be mitigated with a number of different assets, whether that be through personnel, whether that be through technology, or other resources,” she said.

It has been nine days since the attempted assassination. Director Cheatle has no answers in NINE DAYS??? Even AOC found Cheatle’s lack of urgency to be unacceptable.

“We are currently in the midst of … an especially concentrated presidential campaign,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to President Biden dropping his reelection bid and Vice President Harris launching one on Sunday. She also noted that elections across the country are happening in about 100 days.

“So the idea that a report will be finalized in 60 days, let alone prior to any actionable decisions that would be made, is simply not acceptable,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States, regardless of party. There need to be answers.”

“This is not a moment of theater. We need to make policy decisions, and we need to make them now. We do,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “That may require legislation … that we must pass in the immediate term. And without that, we are flying blind.”

Even though she admitted that the Secret Service failed, Cheatle is refusing to resign.

She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades.

“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” Cheatle said.

Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious person two to five times before the shooting. 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 shooting.

Yet Cheatle remained defiant that she was the “right person” to lead the Secret Service, even as she said she takes full responsibility for any security lapses at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.

That answer was not good enough for Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA).

Khanna: "Stewart Knight was in charge of the Secret Service [when Reagan was shot]. Do you know what he did afterwards?"

Cheatle: "He remained on duty."

Khanna: "He resigned." pic.twitter.com/cb0FEq5xvn

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 22, 2024

And Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) wanted to know why Donald Trump was allowed to go on stage when the shooter had been identified as a threat, and spectators were pointing out that he was on the roof of the outbuilding. The director had no answers.

Kimberly Cheatle is shown footage of Trump rally goers pointing to the shooter on the roof.

She then attempts to explain how the Secret Service were not aware that there was a threat to President Trump and why the rally was never paused.

This is a crazy clip pic.twitter.com/gsmbSBywrl

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 22, 2024

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was more blunt, and offered her five minutes of question time to Cheatle if she wanted to “draft her resignation letter” right then and there. Cheatle declined.

It’s abundantly clear that Cheatle came with no answers to give, but was nominated to be the administration’s whipping girl so that the Secret Service could claim that they “tried” to give the House Oversight Committee some time and attention because they “take this seriously.”

BIGGS: "Was Mr. Crooks acting alone?

CHEATLE: "I would have to refer you to the FBI's investigation."

BIGGS: "Was he just a lone gunman?"

CHEATLE: "I would have to refer you to the FBI's investigation for motive." pic.twitter.com/BBzwaKnj5C

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 22, 2024

The director even refused to answer how many shell casings were found on the roof.

Neither Chairman James Comer (R-KY) or Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) were impressed with Cheatle or her testimony. Both want her resignation.

Ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) joined calls demanding the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle at the close of Monday’s House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

“I don’t want to add to the director’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, but I will be joining the chairman in calling for the resignation of the director, just because I think that this relationship is irretrievable at this point,” Raskin said.

“And I think that the director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country. And we need to very quickly move beyond this.”

And both signed a joint letter to that effect.

Oversight Chairman James Comer and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin — who don’t agree on much at all — penned a joint letter to Secret Service Director Cheatle urging her to resign. pic.twitter.com/TeyviBZRA6

— Reese Gorman (@reesejgorman) July 22, 2024

With Joe Biden currently absent from both the White House and the presidency, Cheatle could very well skate by until a new president is in office next January. She conceded that there was “failure” on her watch, but refuses to take responsibility for the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and the murder of an innocent bystander. This committee hearing demonstrated just how much bipartisan anger and disgust there is about the job that Cheatle has done. It’s a rare moment of unity for this House committee, and it just illustrates how complete the failure by the Secret Service was on July 13th. Cheatle might draw a paycheck until next January, but it is clear that her name is mud in Washington DC. And even an incapacitated Joe Biden should have aides telling him that it would be smarter to fire her now, than just leaving her in place for the next president to fire.

Featured image: United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, official portrait by the Department of Homeland Security in 2018, cropped, public domain