Days after Trump survived an apparent assassination attempt, the director of the US Secret Service, Kimberly A. Cheatle has resigned facing backlash over security failures. Amidst calls for her to step down, Cheatle admitted that the Secret Service indeed “fell short of” adhering to the commitment to the agency’s foremost duty of protecting the nation’s leaders, stating that she takes “full responsibility for the security lapse”. Ever since the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump took place sending shockwaves across the world, Cheatle was at the center of a storm of congressional ire as it was considered a massive failure on the Secret Service’s part and as lawmakers dig into a sweeping investigation of the shooting, including how the gunman was able to get on a roof roughly 200 yards from where Trump was speaking.
Accepting the grave mistake, Cheatle had said in the hearing that the incident showcased the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades. Byte: Video1: starting- 0.12 Kimberly A. Cheatle Former Chief, US Secret Service, Cheatle’s resignation comes a day after a tense and contentious hearing before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, where she faced criticism and was extensively grilled over the agency’s handling of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Shortly after the Senate briefing ended, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Cheatle should step down – “Last week’s near-assassination of former President Trump was a grave attack on American democracy. The nation deserves answers and accountability. New leadership at the Secret Service would be an important step in that direction,” McConnell said in a statement.
GFX- What Were the Security Lapses?
The US Secret Service had one primary job, to protect current and former US presidents, however, they failed spectacularly. The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was just nearly 150m away from where Trump was positioned, allowing him direct approach of the Republican Presidential candidate. The only reason why Trump is still alive is because he managed to tilt his head at the exact moment when the bullet was fired, causing a wound in the upper part of the right ear.
Shockingly, an FBI testimony revealed that Donald Trump’s would-be assassin searched for details of the John F. Kennedy shooting from his laptop and flew a drone in the area of the rally, i.e., Pennslyvania, just two hours before Trump took the stage.
An eye-witness noted that though all the attendees were asked to pass through metal detectors to ensure they were not bringing any weapons, the gunman could clearly be seen crawling around with a rifle on top of a nearby building for several minutes, highlighting one of the significant security lapses.
The eye-witness and experts raised questions as to why agents were not deployed on all the nearby rooftops and did not intervene to take Trump off stage after several people from the audience raised alarms that were not acted upon timely.
Former Secret Service agent Charles Marino also agreed that agents’ should have surveyed the surroundings and taken note of “concerning areas”, while one of its special agents said it was “surprising” that the gunman had been able to open fire before the Secret Service killed him.
BYTE: video 8: start to 0.18 Charles Marino Former Agent, US Secret Service CREDIT: NEWSMAX
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