The attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday was “unacceptable”, the director of the US Secret Service said, adding that though “the buck stops with me”, she would not resign.
“It was unacceptable,” Kimberly Cheatle told ABC News on Monday. “And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”
Trump was speaking at the Butler county show grounds when a gunman opened fire from a rooftop. The former president and Republican nominee for November’s presidential election was hit in the ear. One rally-goer was killed and two injured.
Joe Biden praised the man who was killed, former fire chief Corey Comperatore, 50, as “a hero”. But Comperatore’s wife, Helen Comperatore, told the New York Post she turned down a call from the president, as her husband “was a devout Republican and … would not have wanted me to talk to him”.
Saying she had “no ill will towards Biden”, Comperatore said Trump had not called.
Cheatle told ABC: “It was obviously a situation that as a Secret Service agent, no one ever wants to occur in their career.
“The buck stops with me. I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary.”
She would not resign, she said.
A former agent, Cheatle was appointed by Biden in 2022 as the 27th director of the Secret Service and the second woman in the role. Some Republicans calling for her to quit have said her appointment was a result of policies meant to increase diversity.
On Tuesday, the far-right Colorado representative Lauren Boebert introduced a bill “to prohibit the use of federal funds for the salary of the director of the United States Secret Service”.
The assassination attempt “was either intentional or the result of gross incompetence by the United States Secret Service”, Boebert said, adding: “Under Director Cheatle’s failed leadership, the United States Secret Service has prioritised woke [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] policies over … core responsibilities … including protecting our nation’s leaders.
“This lack of leadership contributed to the first assassination attempt of a president in 43 years. Director Cheatle has got to go!”
Slightly more soberly, the Republican-run House oversight committee called Cheatle to testify next Monday, 22 July.
The committee chair, James Comer of Kentucky, said: “The United States Secret Service has a no-fail mission, yet it failed on Saturday when a madman attempted to assassinate President Trump, killed an innocent victim, and harmed others.
“Americans demand answers from Director Kimberly Cheatle.”
Cheatle has said she will “work with the appropriate congressional committees on any oversight action” and “participate fully” in an independent review announced by Biden.
She told ABC: “Secret Service is not political. Security is not political. People’s safety is not political. And that’s what we’re focused on as an agency.”
She had reached out to Trump, she said, but had not spoken to him.
Cheatle repeated denials of reports in rightwing media that Trump’s team asked for increased protection and were rebuffed – or that resources were reapportioned to protect the first lady, Jill Biden.
Criticism has also focused on possible operational failings, including reports that the gunman was identified but not engaged before he opened fire.
“I don’t have all the details yet but it was a very short period of time,” Cheatle said. “Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralising them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult.”
The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, used an AR-15-style rifle to fire from a building close to Trump’s stage.
Cheatle said: “In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter. And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building – there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building.”
The search for a motive continues. Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Cheatle said: “They have the ability to make that decision on their own – if they see that it’s a threat. And they did that in that instance.
“And I applaud the fact that they made that decision and didn’t have to check with anybody and thankfully neutralised the threat.”