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

When Kimberly Cheatle led the Secret Service’s operations to safeguard the American President and other dignitaries, she said she would talk to agents in training about the “awesome responsibility” of their job.

“This agency and the Secret Service has a zero-fail mission,” Cheatle, who is now director of the agency, said in 2021 during a Secret Service podcast called “Standing Post.” “They have to come in every day prepared and ready with their game face on.”

Now, the Secret Service and its director are under intense scrutiny over that “zero fail” mission following an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a July 13 rally in Pennsylvania that wounded his ear. Lawmakers and others across the political spectrum are questioning how a gunman could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded.

Cheatle, who will testify before lawmakers Monday after Congressional Committees and the Joe Biden administration launched a series of investigations, told ABC News that the shooting was “unacceptable.” When asked who bears the most responsibility, she said ultimately, the Secret Service protects the former President.

“The buck stops with me,” Cheatle said. “I am the director of the Secret Service.” She said she has no plans to resign and has the administration’s backing so far.

Democratic President Biden appointed Cheatle in August 2022 to take over an agency with a history of scandals, and she worked to bolster diverse hiring, especially of women in the male-dominated service. The second woman to lead the Secret Service, Cheatle worked her way up for 27 years before leaving in 2021 for a job as a security executive at PepsiCo. Biden brought her back.

Now, she faces her most serious challenge: figuring out what went wrong with the agency’s core responsibility to protect Presidents and whether she can maintain the support – or the job itself – to make changes.

Details are still unfolding about signs of trouble on the day of the assassination attempt, including the steps taken by the Secret Service and local authorities to secure a building that the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, climbed within an estimated 147 yards (135 meters) of where Trump was speaking. An ex-fire chief at the rally, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two others were wounded.

The Biden administration has directed an independent review of security at the rally. The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general has opened three investigations and congressional committees have launched others as calls mount for Cheatle to resign. Two Republican Senators demanding answers followed her as she walked through the Republican National Convention this past week.