Secret Service director resigns in disgrace 1 day after refusing accountability for worst agency failure in 4 decades

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned.

One day after her disastrous hearing before the House Oversight Committee, Cheatle tendered her resignation amid a growing chorus of bipartisan lawmakers demanding that she step down. Her resignation came 10 days after a 20-year-old lone gunman came within inches of assassinating former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent, broke the story of Cheatle's resignation during a radio interview on "The Glenn Beck Program."

Had Cheatle not resigned, lawmakers threatened to pursue immediate impeachment.

"I take full responsibility for the security lapse," she told the Secret Service, the Associated Press reported. "In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director."

Despite leading the Secret Service during the agency's most significant failure since the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981, Cheatle had vowed not to resign.

Cheatle went to Capitol Hill on Monday promising accountability but ultimately refused any when she reaffirmed her stance that she would not resign. She even told lawmakers that she believed she was the "right person" for the job despite the assassination attempt.

For hours, lawmakers from both parties grilled Cheatle, but she refused to provide specific answers that led to the stunning security failures that took the life of Corey Comperatore and seriously injured two other rally attendees.

Instead, she maintained a posture of secrecy that outraged the lawmakers.

After the hearing, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) both demanded that Cheatle resign.

"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," they wrote. "We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people."

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