Yesterday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle sat in front of the House Oversight Committee and provided no answers, no accountability, and no confidence in the organization that she is supposed to be running.

Her performance was, quite frankly, horrific. She would not even say that if Donald Trump had died, she would have resigned.

Cheatle got rightfully roasted by both sides of the aisle. She did such an absymal job of trying to explain what happened – a week and a half after the assassination attempt – that Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) sent a joint letter demanding her resignation.
https://twitter.com/GOPoversight/status/1815464656749605037
Today, Cheatle resigned. She should have been fired, but she got the chance to resign.

Fox News reviewed the letter Cheatle sent to the U.S. Secret Service Tuesday morning, just a day after she taking bipartisan heat during testimony before the House Oversight Committee Monday and over a week after a would-be assassin Thomas Crooks attempted to take the life of Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

“To the Men and Women of the U.S. Secret Service, The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders and financial infrastructure,” Cheatle wrote in a letter to the agency. “On July 13th, we fell short on that mission.”

Cheatle said that the “scrutiny” over the last week “has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases.”

“As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she wrote.

Cheatle said, though, that the “incident does not define us.”

“We remain an organization based on integrity and staffed by individuals of exceptional dedication and talent,” she wrote, adding that the agency “will move forward with our investigatory and protective mission in a steadfast manner.”

“We do not retreat from challenge,” she wrote. “However, I do not want my calls for resignation to be a distraction from the great work each and every one of you do towards our vital mission.”

“I love this agency, our mission, and the great men and woken who sacrifice so much every day,” she wrote. “I have, and will always, put the needs of this agency first.”

“In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that, I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director,” Cheatle wrote.

What convinced Kimberly Cheatle to finally resign? Joe Biden – who has still NOT made a public appearance or been seen by a camera since flying back to Delaware last week – acknowledged her resignation. Or someone using Joe’s name and access did.

President Biden praised Cheatle, who has been with the Secret Service for nearly 30 years, calling her “selflessly dedicated” and noting she “risked her life to protect our nation throughout her career in the United States Secret Service.”

“As a leader, it takes honor, courage, and incredible integrity to take full responsibility for an organization tasked with one of the most challenging jobs in public service.”

Kimberly Cheatle did NOT take full responsibility for what happened on July 13th. In fact, she outright refused to resign yesterday when asked directly.

MACE: "Both sides of the aisle today have asked for your resignation. Would you like to use my five minutes to draft your resignation letter, yes or no?"

CHEATLE: "No, thank you." pic.twitter.com/l149GzAuzp

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

So, what changed? Surely she realized that her position as director of the Secret Service was untenable after yesterday’s committee hearing, but she seemed to be willing to take the heat and brazen it out. Here’s one theory…

Prediction: It will leak that Kamala Harris made the call on Kimberly Cheatle's resignation and the press will use it as a way to promote her decisiveness and dedication to accountability.

Yeah, it'll be dumb and ignore her entire tenure as VP, but watch.

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) July 23, 2024

Cheatle staying on the job was like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. She knew her days were numbered. I could see Democrats on the committee telling the White House to have Kamala Harris make a call, and gain the benefits from the optics. However, Rep. Comer is taking credit on behalf of the House Oversight Committee, and saying that the investigation is not over.

The Oversight Committee’s hearing resulted in Director Cheatle’s resignation and there will be more accountability to come. The Secret Service has a no-fail mission yet it failed historically on Director Cheatle’s watch. At yesterday’s Oversight Committee hearing, Director Cheatle instilled no confidence that she has the ability to ensure the Secret Service can meet its protective mission. Egregious security failures leading up to and at the Butler, Pennsylvania campaign rally resulted in the assassination attempt of President Trump, the murder of an innocent victim, and harm to others in the crowd. While Director Cheatle’s resignation is a step toward accountability, we need a full review of how these security failures happened so that we can prevent them going forward. We will continue our oversight of the Secret Service in support of the House Task Force to deliver transparency, accountability, and solutions to ensure this never happens again.

Again, Kimberly Cheatle will get to leave the job on her own terms when she should have been fired. Biden’s comments (does anyone actually believe that Joe wrote that right now? More likely it was Jill at this point) are far too kind to someone whose job it is to make sure that nothing like this happens. But like so many things in the Biden administration, the buck stops somewhere far away from the people actually in charge, so no one will ever be held accountable or fired for anything.

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