Secret Service Director Resigns, Biden's Statement Missing Two Important Things
Kimberly Cheatle is no longer the director of the Secret Service.
Cheatle resigned Tuesday morning as the head of the USSS following former President and current Republican nominee Donald Trump getting shot during a campaign rally.
The White House announced the news with a statement from President Joe Biden that reads as follows:
Jill and I are grateful to Director Kim Cheatle for her decades of public service. She has selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation throughout her career in the United States Secret Service. We especially thank her for answering the call to lead the Secret Service during our Administration and we are grateful for her service to our family.
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 independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions. We all know what happened that day can never happen again. As we move forward, I wish Kim all the best, and I will plan to appoint a new Director soon.
United States Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigns following failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Yes, the Biden administration is "grateful" for the service of a woman who oversaw Donald Trump nearly taking a bullet to the head. The statement makes no sense. It's embarrassing. Also, notice how it doesn't say the Republican nominee's name? What happened July 13? It doesn't even say.
Trump took to TruthSocial after the news and wrote, "The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!"
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigns.
The fact that it took more than a week for Cheatle to resign is completely unacceptable. The last time a bullet hit a current or former President was more than four decades ago when Ronald Reagan was shot.
The idea that Trump or Biden could get shot seemed almost impossible to imagine prior to July 13 when the Republican leader was hit in the ear.
It's not just the fact that Trump was shot that led to Cheatle needing to go. It was everything about how she handled the situation that required her to leave.
She came up with a nonsense excuse that the shooter's roof location wasn't secure because it was sloped. As we've covered extensively here at OutKick, that claim makes no sense.
Cheatle followed that insane claim by stonewalling questions during a Monday congressional hearing and seemingly doubling down on the roof claim. The now-former USSS director refused to get into specifics or answer questions about how Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to pull off the shooting.
It was beyond embarrassing, and her time was doomed as soon as House Committee on Oversight and Accountability leaders James Comer (R) and Jamie Raskin (D) released a co-statement demanding she step down.
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle finally resigns following Donald Trump being shot. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Now, she's officially gone. It should have happened much sooner. The country simply can't tolerate current or former Presidents being shot and then information not being made immediately available.