Former President Donald Trump reacted to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle’s Tuesday announcement that she had resigned from her position following backlash over how her agency handled the recent assassination attempt against the former president.
In an interview with Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon, Trump stated, “She never gave me proper protection, so I ended up having to take a bullet for democracy.”
‘We fell short.’
He claimed that his campaign submitted numerous requests for additional security, which the agency often rejected or outright ignored.
“Many requests were made by on-site Secret Service for more people, always with a turn down or no response,” Trump told the news outlet. “I have the biggest crowds in history, and they should be treated accordingly.”
He added that “big improvements have been made over the last week,” Fox News Digital reported.
On Tuesday morning, Cheatle sent a letter to the Secret Service announcing her resignation despite previously refusing to step down.
“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. “On July 13th, we fell short on that mission.”
During Monday’s House Oversight Committee hearing, she faced pressure from both sides of the aisle to resign after admitting the agency’s response to the assassination attempt was a “failure.”
After Cheatle’s initial refusal to step down on Monday, United States Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) filed a motion that evening that would have forced a vote in the House to impeach her, according to a recent press release.
During the hearing, Mace asked Cheatle whether the agency’s response was “a colossal failure,” to which the director replied, “Yes.” Mace slammed the Secret Service for its lack of transparency, noting that lawmakers had to subpoena Cheatle to testify. She accused the director of leaking her opening statement to various media outlets before sending it to the committee in anticipation of the hearing.
“I have no idea how my statement got out,” Cheatle claimed.
“Well, that’s bulls***,” Mace rebutted. “On July 15th, this committee sent you a list of demands of information that we wanted. Has the Secret Service provided this committee a complete list of all law enforcement personnel that were there that day?”
Cheatle responded, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
“That is a ‘no,’” Mace continued. “You’re full of s*** today. You’re just being completely dishonest.”
“We haven’t gotten a single document or piece of information or data from you or your agency,” Mace added.
During her testimony, Cheatle did not provide a direct response when asked how many times the agency had rejected the Trump campaign’s requests for additional security.
In her opening statement before the committee, she admitted that the agency’s response to the assassination attempt was “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.” However, at the time, she maintained that she was “the best person” to lead the agency.
After Cheatle gave in to the mounting calls to resign on Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden released a statement addressing the decision and thanking her for her 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,” the statement read. “The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13th continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions. We all know what happened that day can never happen again.”
During her Monday testimony before the committee, Cheatle said the agency’s ongoing initial internal review would take approximately 60 days.
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