The head of the United States Secret Service has addressed the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump.
Director Kimberly Cheatle opted to appear on ABC News rather than hold a more traditional press conference in the wake of the July 13 shooting in Pennsylvania. Her agency has been sharply criticized for not stopping Thomas Matthew Crooks, the attacker who was on the roof of a building near the rally for almost 30 minutes.
“The Secret Service is responsible for the protection of the former president,” Cheatle told ABC correspondent Pierre Thomas on July 15. "The buck stops with me.”
“It was unacceptable and it's something that shouldn't happen again,” she added. “I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary."
Cheatle said she will not resign from her role and her agency will continue to be “transparent and communicate with people.”
As part of her interview, the director indicated Secret Service did not oversee all of the security at the Trump rally. Cheatle said local law enforcement was in charge of securing the building where Crooks fired at the Republican presidential nominee. Law enforcement officers were inside the building at the time of the attack.
"In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter," said Cheatle. "And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter…There was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building."
While Cheatle said she did not have “all the details yet,” she said that “seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult."
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said that “Americans demand answers from Director Kimberly Cheatle about these security lapses and how we can prevent this from happening again.”
“The United States Secret Service has a no-fail mission, yet it failed on Saturday when a madman attempted to assassinate President Trump, killed an innocent victim, and harmed others,” Comer said in a press release. “We are grateful to the brave Secret Service agents who acted quickly to protect President Trump after shots were fired and the American patriots who sought to help victims, but questions remain about how a rooftop within proximity to President Trump was left unsecure.”
Cheatle is set to appear before the committee on July 22. She was appointed by President Joe Biden in August 2022 after more than 25 years with the Secret Service.
“Jill and I know firsthand Kim’s commitment to her job and to the Secret Service’s people and mission. When Kim served on my security detail when I was Vice President, we came to trust her judgement and counsel,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House. “She is a distinguished law enforcement professional with exceptional leadership skills, and was easily the best choice to lead the agency at a critical moment for the Secret Service. She has my complete trust, and I look forward to working with her.”
