NOTE: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday just one day after the agency's leader faced intense questioning from a congressional panel.
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Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, filed a motion on Monday to impeach Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle just hours after the agency's leader faced intense questioning from a congressional panel.
The motion requires House Republican leadership to decide whether to bring the question to a vote. Members of both parties have called on Cheatle's resignation following the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Cheatle has rejected such calls to date.
Cheatle acknowledged on Monday before the House Oversight Committee that the July 13 incident was the Secret Service's "most significant operational failure" in decades.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed," she added. "As the Director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse. As an agency, we are fully cooperating with the FBI’s investigation, the oversight you have initiated here, and conducting our own internal mission assurance review at my direction. Likewise, we will cooperate with the pending external review and the DHS Office of the Inspector General."
RELATED STORY | Secret Service director: Trump assassination attempt was its 'most significant operational failure' in decades
Mace was among those who denounced Cheatle for the incident. During Mace's questioning, Cheatle acknowledged that the incident was "preventable."
"We are witnessing an unacceptable performance by Director Kim Cheatle. Despite repeated questioning, she has failed to provide clear answers regarding the number of times the The Secret Service denied protections for President Trump before the assassination attempt," Mace said. "We are just nine days out from the assassination attempt which nearly cost President Trump his life. A colossal failure of this magnitude is a matter of national security; she should start preparing her resignation letter."
The outrage among lawmakers was bipartisan. Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Rasking, D-Maryland, also called on Cheatle to step down.
"I think that this relationship is irretrievable at this point. And I think that the director has lost the confidence of Congress at a very urgent and tender moment in the history of the country," he said.
The Department of Homeland Security said on Sunday that it would conduct an independent 45-day review of the July 13 incident that left Trump wounded. One Trump supporter was also killed by a gunman, and two others were wounded.
The gunman fired from a rooftop of a nearby building that was just outside of the secured perimeter of the Pennsylvania political rally where Trump was speaking. The shooter was fatally wounded by authorities seconds after he fired at Trump.
