A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee is demanding that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resign after she asked more questions than she answered during a hearing into the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., joined “Fox & Friends” to discuss why they are calling for Cheatle to resign after the embattled director refused to answer the vast majority of questions before Congress during her testimony Monday.
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“Anyone who has watched the Oversight Committee knows that we don't always agree on the Oversight Committee, but on this, there was basically unanimity,” Donalds told Lawrence Jones on Tuesday. “She needs to go immediately. It should have happened yesterday, it needs to happen today. The mission of the Secret Service is to protect all former presidents and their families and other key personnel and leaders.”
“This is not just about President Trump, although his life is what is at stake,” he continued. “This is about President Obama, President Clinton, President Bush and President Biden. This is a very serious matter. Members of Congress are not going to stop calling for her to go.”
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 22: U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee during a hearing at the Rayburn House Office Building on July 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. The embattled leader of the U.S. Secret Service has vowed to cooperate with all investigations into the agency following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Cheatle, who testified under subpoena on Monday, declined to answer the vast majority of lawmakers' questions related to the security failures that led to the shooting at Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, regularly citing the fact that the incident is still under criminal investigation.
While he admitted under oath that the Secret Service “failed” in its mission on July 13, he made clear, despite bipartisan calls, that he would not resign from his post.
“The Secret Service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. On July 13, we failed,” Cheatle said in her opening statement. “As director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security failures by our agency. We are cooperating fully with the ongoing investigations. We must know what happened, and I will move heaven and earth to ensure that an incident like the one on July 13 never happens again.”
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“She needs to step down,” Khanna said. “This is not a partisan issue. Obviously, the former president was not protected, a presidential candidate was not protected, and she simply does not have the confidence of the nation. There are a lot of people who don't trust her, so she needs to step aside.”
“I really don't understand why she would want to continue at this point as director of the Secret Service,” she continued. “You need the trust of all the American people. It's not a political position. It's a position where you protect our leaders. And she just doesn't have that trust. And at a time when we're so polarized, where people have lost trust in government, she needs to do the right thing.”
Khanna asked Cheatle during the hearing whether he would consider the assassination attempt “the most serious security failure since President Reagan was assassinated in 1981.”
She said yes, and he used that statement as a basis to argue that she should resign. So far, she has refused to do so.
“She was very evasive, stonewalling,” Donalds said. “As Ro said, she did not give any member of the Capitol any confidence that she is prepared to do the work necessary to fix what went wrong that day and make sure it doesn't happen again. As far as I'm concerned, she should resign. She should be fired. I'm surprised she's still the head of the Secret Service to this day.”
“There has to be real accountability. We can't play politics and have everyone say, 'I'm going to be responsible. I'm going to take care of this. It's my responsibility. I'm deeply sorry.' That's not enough. The Secret Service has a unique mission compared to almost any other federal agency. This is very serious. She has to go,” he continued.
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