WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 22: Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) holds up paper as she questions United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing at the Rayburn House Office Building on July 22, 2024 in Washington, DC. The beleaguered leader of the United States Secret Service has vowed cooperation with all investigations into the agency following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
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South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace moved Monday night to force a vote to impeach U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who faces mounting bipartisan criticism over the agency’s security failure on July 13, when a gunman opened fire during a rally of former President Donald Trump.
The House is compelled to hold a vote on the floor on the impeachment resolution within two legislative days. It needs a simple majority to clear the House. House Speaker Mike Johnson and his team could move to table the resolution or refer it to a committee.
Cheatle was subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Monday – the first time in her 29-year service that she’s been called to testify before Congress.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed,” Cheatle said at the hearing. “As the Director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse.”
She said the Secret Service is cooperating with a variety of ongoing investigations.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced that in addition to various congressional committee investigations, there will be a bipartisan investigative task force comprised of seven Republican and six Democrats. That panel will make recommendations for reform and recommend possible legislation needed to implement reforms. The House will vote on a resolution to establish the force this week.
“The security failures that allowed an assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life are shocking,” the leaders said in a 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.”
Cheatle faces bipartisan calls for her to step down. During the hearing, Mace asked Cheatle if she wanted to use Mace’s five minutes of questioning to draft her resignation letter.
United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testified before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on July 22, 2024 in Washington, DC.
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The hearing, which came just over a week after the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa., featured members on both sides of the aisle expressing frustration over Cheatles’ testimony, in which she didn’t give clear answers on how the shooter was able to get onto a roof with a clear line of sight of the former president.
“The American people have questions. They deserve answers. Congress deserves answers,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. “You were subpoenaed today to provide answers, and, ma’am, you did not do that.”
After the hearing, Comer and the top Democrat on the committee Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, released a joint letter calling on Cheatle to resign as director.
“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 letter read.