Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Florida) called on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign on Monday, joining several Democrats who also expressed frustration following her congressional testimony that day.
“Mass shooting at campaign rally + assassination attempt on former president was a huge Secret Service failure,” Frost wrote in a post on social platform X.
“Unfortunately, at today’s hearing, Director Cheatle barely answered questions and avoided legitimate concerns. She should resign immediately,” he continued.
Frost included a short clip of his conversation with Cheatle that day during the hearing. In the exchange, Frost pressed Cheatle about how many times the Secret Service was alerted to suspicious activity before the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
“I don’t have an exact number to share with you today, but from what I’ve been able to discern, somewhere between two and five times there has been some type of communication about a suspicious individual,” Cheatle responded.
“Specifically for the Secret Service?” asked Frost. Cheatle responded with a nonverbal confirmation.
Ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) joined calls for Cheatle to resign at the end of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing.
“I don’t want to add anything to the director’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, but I will join the president in calling for the director’s resignation, just because I think this relationship is irretrievable at this point,” Raskin said. “And I think the director lost the trust of Congress at a very urgent and delicate moment in the country’s history. And we need to move beyond that very quickly.”
Shortly after the hearing ended, Raskin, along with Speaker James Comer (R-Ky.), sent a joint letter to Cheatle asking him to resign.
“Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding this stunning operational failure and failed to assure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its errors and systemic failures. In the midst of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing,” they wrote in a rare joint letter.
“We ask that you resign as Director as a first step to allow new leadership to quickly address this crisis and rebuild trust with a truly concerned Congress and the American people.”
Raskin’s appeal adds to the growing number of Democrats demanding Cheatle’s resignation — numbers that grew over the course of a disastrous four-hour hearing.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Florida) also called for Cheatle’s resignation during the hearing, joining Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), who was the first Democrat to do so. This demands it on the weekend.
Many Republicans joined the call for Cheatle to resign or for President Biden to fire her if she did not.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called for Cheatle’s resignation on Wednesday, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called for new leadership at the agency the same day .
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
