Secret Service director resigns after attempt on Trump’s life

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle announced her resignation to agency employees in an email Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Her resignation came after lawmakers called for her to step down during a hearing the day before. Both Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee called for her to resign following what she described as the agency’s biggest security failure in decades.

On July 13, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump while he was on stage at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa. Crooks only grazed Trump’s right ear, but gunfire killed one rally attendee and severely injured two other people.

How had Cheatle initially responded to calls in the hearing for her to resign? Cheatle told lawmakers Monday that she took full responsibility for the Secret Service’s failure to prevent the shooting from taking place at all. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who attended the hearing, later said that if she did mean to take responsibility she would resign. After her resignation on Tuesday, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., said that he was pleased but that she should have done it days before.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report in The Sift about the man who died at the Trump rally and how he used his body to shield his family.