Editorial: Falling on her sword -- Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle failed and had to resign

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle should have saved herself from being roasted for 4 hours and 40 minutes Monday by justifiably angry members of the House Oversight Committee livid over the failures of the Secret Service to prevent the shooting of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally 11 days ago. She should have resigned rather than sit there and make the situation worse. Instead, she quit yesterday.

Trump thankfully survived, but rallygoer Corey Comperatore died, as did a lot of the agency’s credibility and Cheatle’s reputation.

Cheatle said in her opening statement: “The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed. As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse.” At that point she should have announced that she was leaving her job.

The rancor at her was appropriately bipartisan, as she either refused or was unable to answer basic questions about how the assassin with a bulky AR-15 got on the roof and managed to fire eight shots; about why warnings from rallygoers were not heeded about the man on the roof; about how after local law enforcement knew about the suspicious person on the roof, Trump wasn’t removed from the stage; about the failure of the Secret Service, which is the lead agency, to coordinate more effectively with other law enforcement to secure the area and the the perimeter with clear sightlines to the podium that Trump was using.

Trump and the country got very lucky. A few millimeters difference and that ear nick would have been fatal.

When Monday’s hearing ended, the Republican Chairman James Comer and Ranking Democrat Jamie Raskin wrote a joint letter calling for Cheatle to resign. She didn’t, but waited until the next morning to pack it in, as Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries teamed up to present a bipartisan task force to investigate the Trump shooting. That special new panel, with seven Republicans and six Democrats, will be approved on the House floor today and hopefully use its subpoena authority to get some answers.

Beside the particulars of the July 13 assassination attempt, of which the FBI is conducting a full review, does the Secret Service need more money, more agents and officers, more equipment, more authority? Do the policies and procedures need to be changed? Emptying out Cheatle’s office is not going to be enough if her replacement has the same approach.

The job of director is appointed by the president, without Senate confirmation. There is now a bill to change that makes the post subject to a confirmation vote. We don’t know if a Senate hearing would have weeded out Cheatle or prevented the Pennsylvania mishaps and tragedy that nearly became a national catastrophe, but the added scrutiny of the service is welcome.

Now the agency wants the Trump campaign to avoid outdoor rallies. While we support the utmost security for presidents and presidential candidates, how about just making the outdoor rallies safer?

Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris must be protected and allowed to campaign as they wish. That protection has been the job of the Secret Service since 1902. Campaigning has changed, but protection should not.

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