Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns
Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, discusses Cheatle’s decision to step down after Monday’s heated House hearing on the security lapses that allowed the assassination attempt on former President Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally this month.
The U.S. Secret Service (USSS) should have “one set of standards,” according to Republican Oklahoma Rep. Josh Brecheen.
Brecheen introduced a bill on Tuesday called the Secret Service Readiness Act that aims to create “a uniform fitness standard for Secret Service special agents and uniformed division officers” after the assassination attempt that wounded former President Trump at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
“We believe that there ought to be one set of standards for Secret Service agents. There shouldn’t be multiple different ways you can qualify based upon your sex or your political beliefs. If people who are being protected by [the] Secret Service – if they want the opportunity to let those who can’t meet full historic standards on their details, let them handle it. Don’t force it upon everybody else and potentially make them more vulnerable to an assassination attempt. There should be one set of standards.”
Brecheen’s comments come after the Oklahoma congressman, along with other bipartisan members of the House Committee on Homeland Security, on Monday visited the site of the rally to get a better idea of how shooter Thomas Crooks was able to open fire on the president from approximately 150 yards.
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Members of Congress arrive at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 22, 2024. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital )
The assassination attempt and string of security failures or miscommunications that allowed Crooks to get on the roof of a nearby building and fire multiple rounds from an AR-15 at the former president and his rally attendees, killing one and critically wounding two others, has brought a magnifying glass to the Secret Service’s recent diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that some experts have criticized as counterintuitive.
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The USSS did not immediately respond to an inquiry from Fox News Digital regarding the new bill.
Former USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned Tuesday, was responsible for executing the agency’s integrated mission of “protection and investigations by leading a diverse workforce,” according to the USSS agency website. Critics have accused Cheatle of prioritizing “woke” ideologies rooted in DEI instead of only focusing on hiring the best for the agency.
Cheatle has admitted to the security lapse on July 13 that led to the assassination attempt against Trump.
Kimberly Cheatle, director of the United States Secret Service, attends a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on July 22, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“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 in a letter to the agency obtained by Fox News. “On July 13th, we fell short on that mission.”
Cheatle said that the “scrutiny” over the last week “has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases.”
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“As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse,” she wrote.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is surrounded by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Brecheen said Cheatle’s resignation came “days too late.”
“It should’ve happened the moment she started saying she takes full responsibility,” the congressman said.
While visiting the rally site on Monday, Brecheen noticed that the interior perimeter where the rally took place was only about the size of a football field that the Secret Service was “individually manning,” whereas local and state police were monitoring the outer perimeter. The outer perimeter contained 50 buildings within 500 yards of where the president was standing, including a water tower that was unmanned during the event.
Members of Congress arrive at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 22, 2024. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital )
Drone footage shows lawmakers climbing on top of the AGR building that Thomas Crooks fired from on July 13. (Fox News Digital)
“The outer perimeter had so many vulnerabilities for someone to be on top of a roof — many white roofs, inside of a building, behind a building — and yet, there’s not a single drone in the air,” the congressman said, noting that there were several drones flying over the area Monday as news organizations captured photos and videos of lawmakers touring the site.
Brecheen also learned that there was a 20- to 25-minute gap between when snipers first spotted and photographed Crooks on top of the American Glass Research (AGR) building and when Crooks fired his AR-15.
“We know that 20 minutes goes by after a text is sent to a Secret Service agent, saying to him, ‘Hey, here’s a picture of somebody on the roof…'”
“We know that 20 minutes goes by after a text is sent to a Secret Service agent, saying to him, ‘Hey, here’s a picture of somebody on the roof’ … before President Trump is shot at,” Brecheen said, adding that “if there had been one Secret Service agent with drone technology when the text message came in,” there might have been a different outcome.
The Butler Farm Show fairgrounds is seen July 15, 2024, in Butler, Pa. Former President Trump was wounded on July 13 in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally at the venue. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
“The breakdown of communication, the lack of efficiency, and the way this thing worked with [officers] having to text each other the picture, and then the local emergency unit for Butler County getting this no-name number from a Secret Service agent [telling them] to text this picture — the picture they took of him on top of the building 20 minutes before the shot occurs — there should have been an immediate opportunity,” the congressman said.
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A representative from any one of the law enforcement agencies performing security duties that evening should have felt empowered enough to say, “‘Hold, get him off the stage,'” Brecheen said.
“It’s a major, major catastrophe of efficiency that is being exposed,” he added.
Fox News’ Bailee Hill, Brooke Singman and Peter Doocy contributed to this report.