Secret Service chief out after rally shooting

United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday after outrage was expressed by both political parties over her agency's failure to prevent an assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Cheatle, 53, announced her resignation through an internal email. "In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director," she said, adding that she did not want the calls for her resignation "to be a distraction from the great work" the agency is doing.

Cheatle served on the team of agents that secured vice-president Dick Cheney on Sept 11, 2001.Cheatle later worked on President Joe Biden's detail during his vice-presidency and was assigned to his wife Jill.

Biden issued a statement on Tuesday after her resignation, saying, "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."

Within minutes after news of Cheatle's resignation broke, Trump said on his social media network: "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!"

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appointed Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe, a 24-year veteran of the service, as acting director. In an interview last week, Rowe defended Cheatle's leadership and said she should not resign.

The security measures during Trump's July 13 rally were seriously flawed as a nearby building was not monitored. The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, positioned himself there for the shooting.

The day before her resignation, Cheatle testified at a congressional hearing where she offered no clear answers on the failure to protect Trump.

She acknowledged that the shooter was identified as suspicious — having had a range finder and backpack — more than an hour before he opened fire. She also acknowledged that Secret Service agents had received multiple notifications of a person acting suspiciously "somewhere between two and five times "prior to the shooting.

Safety lapses

However, the potential threat seemed to not have been conveyed to Trump's security team.

"If the detail had been passed information that there was a threat, the detail would never have brought the former president out on the stage," Cheatle said in the hearing.

Crooks fired at least six rounds from an AR-15-style rifle from the roof of the American Glass Research building, roughly 120 meters from where Trump spoke. The shots killed one spectator, critically injured two others and grazed Trump's right ear.

A Secret Service sniper team shot back, killing Crooks, whose motive remains unknown.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries agreed on Tuesday to form a bipartisan task force to lead the congressional investigation into the assassination attempt.

"The security failures that allowed an assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life are shocking," they said in a joint statement. "The task force will be empowered with subpoena authority and will move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability and make certain such failures never happen again."