Editor's Note: Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle has tendered her resignation since the publication of this article. 

In a nearly-five-hour hearing before the U.S. House Oversight Committee, Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle faced repeated calls to resign. On Monday, Cheatle was questioned by legislators over U.S. Secret Service security failures which resulted in former President Donald Trump being shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. Throughout the hearing, Cheatle repeatedly dodged or refused to answer questions from legislators, despite having been subpoenaed.

“Although I appreciate your hollow words that ‘The buck stops here,’ I was actually hoping for some answers. Director Cheatle, you must answer to the American people if you want to stay in charge. It’s really, really simple,” Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) said. “The best way to keep your job is to answer the question.”

While under oath, Cheatle insisted that the “ongoing” nature of the investigation into her agency’s security failure prevented her from answering questions with any detail. She admitted that she did not bring with her a timeline or other documents relevant to the Committee’s questions. She even told legislators that she was “not going to get into specifics” regarding the Secret Service’s preparations or surveillance prior to the rally.

When asked by Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) whether the Secret Service had used a drone to surveil the rally premises, Cheatle replied, “I’m not going to get into specifics of that day in itself, but there are times during a security pan that the Secret Service does deploy an asset like a drone.” Comer continued, “There were reports that the shooter used a drone just a few hours before the rally’s start-time, is that accurate?” Cheatle said that she was still “waiting for the final report.”

Cheatle repeated this excuse multiple times throughout the hearing. When Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) asked her about communications with counter-sniper and advance teams, the Secret Service director said, “We are putting together a comprehensive report that I can identify exactly where the gaps are, and the failures.” Donalds responded, “Director, it’s been nine days. Either you have the information or you do not.” He asked if Secret Service agents had seen the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, on the roof prior to his opening fire on Trump. “I do not have all of those details at this time,” Cheatle replied.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) also criticized Cheatle for refusing to answer legislators’ questions. The South Carolina Republican prefaced her questioning by demanding that Cheatle answer only “yes” or “no” to her questions. She asked, “Would you like to use my five minutes to draft your resignation letter?” Cheatle replied, “No, thank you.” When Cheatle said that the Secret Service had been completely transparent with Congress, Mace asked, “Would you say the fact that we had to issue a subpoena today as being transparent?” When Cheatle refused to answer yes-or-no questions, Mace snapped, “Bullsh**.” She added, “You are full of sh** today, you are just being completely dishonest.”

“How many Secret Service personnel have lost their jobs because of this colossal failure?” Mace asked. “At this time, none,” Cheatle admitted. When questioned on when Secret Service agents were made aware of particular instances of suspicious or threatening behavior, Cheatle responded, “I am still verifying timelines.” Citing news articles, interviews, and whistleblowers, Mace often provided exact answers, quipping, “Of course. Nine days in, you have no answers.”

Texas Republican Rep. Pat Fallon tore into Cheatle. Calling Trump’s survival a “miracle,” Fallon berated the Secret Service director for not having visited the site of the attempted assassination yet. “The shooter has visited the site two more times than you have,” he emphasized. He noted that he himself tried to recreate the shooting to determine how the Secret Service could have conceivably failed so tremendously. With almost no training and very little experience with the rifle Crooks used, Fallon took 16 test shots on Saturday and said that 15 of them would have killed somebody from the same distance at which Crooks shot Trump. He noted that Crooks had significantly more experience with a gun.

He also upbraided Cheatle for her claim that the slope of the roof used by Crooks made it unsafe for Secret Service agents to secure. “Does the Secret Service have a written policy you can share with us about sloped roofs?” Fallon asked. When Cheatle answered, “No,” the congressman asked, “So, why did you act like there was one? Because is it your practice to comment on events of enormous national implications when you’re ignoring the facts?” Calling the Secret Service director’s comments on the sloped roof “pathetic,” he added, “It wasn’t the roof that was dangerous, it was the nut-job on top of the roof.”

“I believe your horrifying ineptitude and your lack of skilled leadership is a disgrace. Your obfuscating today is shameful,” Fallon concluded. “You should be fired today and go back to guarding Doritos,” he said, referring to Cheatle’s previous job as head of security for PepsiCo.

During the hearing, Cheatle admitted that Trump had requested additional security in the past, despite having denied previously that any such requests had been received. She also refused to answer questions regarding discrepancies between Trump’s security detail and First Lady Jill Biden’s. According to emails leaked by whistleblowers, the First Lady had four times the security personnel that Trump did on the day that he was shot. The only answer Cheatle provided was, “The number of personnel that were allocated to both of those events were comparable to the risk at both of those events.”

Cheatle claimed that the greatest failures on July 13 were matters of communication. Yet she admitted that no Secret Service communication records were kept from that day. She was also forced to admit that she used encrypted messaging apps on her private personal phone to communicate with Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) colleagues. When asked if Congress could examine her personal devices, Cheatle simply insisted that the discussions were not work-related.

Even Democrats, most of whom have previously referred to Trump as a dictator or compared him to Adolf Hitler, were critical of Cheatle. When the Secret Service director admitted that July 13 was the worst Secret Service failure since the 1981 assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) asked if Cheatle knew how then- Secret Service Director Stuart Knight responded to that incident. “He remained on duty,” Cheatle guessed. “He resigned,” Khanna corrected her. He reiterated forcefully, “He resigned.”

While Cheatle noted repeatedly that she intended to deliver a “full report” within 60 days of the assassination attempt, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) emphatically stated, “The idea that a report will be finalized in 60 days, let alone prior to any actionable decisions that would be made, is simply not acceptable. It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president. There need to be answers.” Cortez was also the only Democrat present who did not mention or promote “gun control” during the hearing.

Numerous legislators also alleged that Cheatle is grossly unqualified for her position and was hired to satisfy diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) demands. “Miss Cheatle, you said that ‘The buck stops with me,’ and I agree,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said. “I don’t think you should resign. I think she should have been fired. Ma’am, you are a DEI horror story.” Last year, Cheatle committed to increasing the number of female agents in the Secret Service, with a goal of nearly one third (30%) of agents being female by 2030.

Cheatle argued that the July 13 security failure “has nothing to do with DEI” but was instead “a failure or a gap either in planning or communication.” Last week, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Cheatle’s boss, also refuted DEI-oriented criticism following the failed assassination attempt. “In the days following the attempted assassination of former President Trump, some people have made public statements questioning the presence of women in law enforcement, including in the United States Secret Service. These assertions are baseless and insulting,” Mayorkas wrote in a statement. Without acknowledging the Secret Service’s security failure, he pledged to “continue to recruit, retain, and elevate women in our law enforcement ranks. Our Department will be the better for it, and our country more secure.”

Following the hearing, Committee Chairman Comer and Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) issued a bipartisan letter demanding that Cheatle resign. “Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures,” the two wrote. “We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people.”

Throughout the hearing, Cheatle insisted that she would not resign, telling legislators outright that she intends to remain in her position. Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) subsequently announced that he would be filing articles of impeachment against Cheatle. Mace filed a privileged motion to impeach Cheatle, forcing a House vote on the matter within 48 hours. During the hearing, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) accused Cheatle of lying under oath and demanded that Comer, as committee chairman, examine the transcripts and bring perjury charges if applicable.

In the days prior to the congressional hearing, U.S. senators released their own reports on the Secret Service’s July 13 security failures. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) released a report detailing that the Secret Service did not attend security briefings with local SWAT and sniper teams the morning of the shooting, local law enforcement radio contact with the Secret Service was kept to a minimum, and the Secret Service initially planned not to have snipers at the event. Even more alarmingly, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) reported whistleblower testimony claiming that agents had in fact been stationed on the roof where Crooks lay to shoot Trump, but “abandoned his or her post” because it was hot out, and that law enforcement were assigned to patrol the building but moved inside it instead, also citing extreme heat.