Secret Service chief noted a ‘zero fail mission.’ After Trump rally, she’s facing calls to resign

WASHINGTON — When Kimberly Cheatle led the Secret Service operations to protect the American president and other dignitaries, she said she would talk to officers in training about the “tremendous responsibility” of their job.

“This agency and the Secret Service have a mission that will never fail,” Cheatle, who is now the agency’s director, said during a 2021 Secret Service Podcast called “Standing Post“They have to be prepared and ready every day, with a sporty face.”

Now the Secret Service and its director are under intense scrutiny for that “zero-failure” mission, after a attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump during a July 13 rally in Pennsylvania, where his ear was injured. Lawmakers and others across the political spectrum are asking questions how a shooter could get so close to the Republican presidential candidate, when he should have been carefully guarded.

Cheatle, who is set to testify before lawmakers on Monday after congressional committees and the Biden administration launched a series of investigations, told ABC News the shooting was “unacceptable.” When asked who bears the most responsibility, she said it is ultimately the Secret Service that is protecting the former president.

“The responsibility is mine,” Cheatle said. “I’m the director of the Secret Service.” She said she has no plans to resign and so far has the support of the administration.

Democratic President Joe Biden nominated Cheatle in August 2022 to take over an agency with a history of scandal, and she has worked to boost diversity in hiring, particularly of women in the male-dominated service. Cheatle was the second woman to lead the Secret Service and worked her way up the ranks for 27 years before leaving in 2021 for a job as a security executive at PepsiCo. Biden brought her back.

Now she faces her biggest challenge: figuring out what went wrong with the agency’s core mission of protecting presidents and whether she can maintain the support — or the mission itself — to implement change.

Details are still being revealed about signs of trouble on the day of the attempted murderincluding steps taken by the Secret Service and local authorities to secure a building where the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, climbed an estimated 147 yards (135 meters) from where Trump spoke. former fire chief at the meeting, Corey Comperatore was killed and two others were injured.

The Biden administration has ordered an independent investigation into security at the rally. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has opened three investigations and Congressional committees have launched other as calls for Cheatle’s resignation grow. Two Republican senators demanding answers followed her as she walked through the Republican National Convention last week.

“The nation deserves answers and accountability,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., posted on the social media platform X. “New leadership at the Secret Service would be an important step in that direction.”

In the House, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on X that Biden should fire Cheatle immediately, noting Comperatore’s death and saying that “we … came millimeters away from losing President Trump. It is inexcusable.” Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said in a statement Saturday that “the evidence that has come to light has shown unacceptable operational failures” and that he would have no confidence in Cheatle’s leadership if she remained in the job.

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has subpoenaed Cheatle to appear in court Monday, and she is expected to appear.

After the shooting, Cheatle and the female Secret Service agents who protected Trump have faced withering criticism and questions about whether Cheatle lowered hiring standards. Advocates are adamant that he did not.

“It is disrespectful to the women of the Department of Homeland Security’s Secret Service and female police officers across the country to suggest that their gender disqualifies them from service to the nation and their communities,” said Kristie Canegallo, acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security.

Like many other law enforcement agencies, the Secret Service struggles with how to attract and retain agents and officers.

Women make up about 24% of the agency’s workforce, according to the agency’s website. In a May 2023 interview with CBS News, Cheatle said she was aware of the “need to attract diverse candidates and make sure we’re developing and providing opportunities for everyone in our workforce, and particularly women.”

Two years ago, Cheatle took over the agency’s 7,800 special agents, uniformed officers and other staffers, whose primary purpose is to protect presidents, vice presidents, their families, former presidents and others. In announcing her appointmentBiden said Cheatle had been part of his vice presidential team and called her a “distinguished law enforcement professional with exceptional leadership skills” who had his “full confidence.”

Cheatle took over from James M. Murray as several congressional committees and an internal watchdog investigated missing text messages from the moment Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Secret Service says they were purged during a technological transition.

Going back even further, there have been other problems with the Secret Service, including a prostitution scandal before President Barack Obama’s trip to Colombia in 2012 and a man who jumped the White House fence and entered the building in 2014.

The Department of Homeland Security did not make Cheatle available for an interview, but Canegallo defended her work. Canegallo said Cheatle advocated for a law passed this year that allowed overtime for Secret Service agents and successfully oversaw nine high-profile events, such as political conventions. The agency under her watch protected Biden during his trip to Ukraine without any problems, said Canegallo.

During the podcast, Cheatle discussed how much planning goes into events the Secret Service oversees — from bad weather and COVID-19 to threats of violence.

“Our job is to sit back and ask ourselves, ‘What if?’” she said, “with every potential threat and every scenario, we have to think about it.

Cheatle applied to the Secret Service while still in college. She was told she would have to wait until she graduated, and she said in the podcast that it ultimately took a little over two years for her to get hired: “I was pretty persistent.”

After her training, she was assigned to the Detroit office, where she spent just over four years. Cheatle was transferred to Washington, where she served on the Treasury Secretary’s team and protected Vice President Dick Cheney, including on 9/11.

Other positions held during her time at the agency included special agent in charge of the Atlanta field office and special agent in charge of the agency’s training facility in Maryland. She became the first woman to be appointed assistant director of protective operations, the division that provides protection to the president and other dignitaries, where she oversaw a $133.5 million budget.