After declaring she would not step down as director of the U.S. Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle did exactly that 10 days after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. But just who is Cheatle, and was she ever truly fit for a job of such monumental responsibility?
The attempt on the life of the former president of the United States was no less than a complete and catastrophic failure. That act alone should have been enough for Joe Biden to fire the director immediately. However, his standards are low, and he hasn’t fired anyone during his term in office, so why would he start now?
Cheatle was selected by Biden to head up the Secret Service in August 2022. Perhaps he was impressed that as head of security at PepsiCo, no Doritos or Cheetos were harmed under her watch. Cheatle also previously worked at the Secret Service in a number of roles, including the Vice Presidential Protective Division where she served on VP Biden’s security detail.
She was also the first woman to serve as the Secret Service’s assistant director of protective operations and the agency’s second female director.
After being selected by Biden, he gave Cheatle lofty praise and said he had “complete trust in her judgment and counsel.”
Yet what really attracted Biden was likely her emphasis on diversity. She was bothered by the fact that the security industry in general was dominated by men, so much so that in a 2023 interview with CBS, Cheatle let it be known she was committed to a Secret Service with 30% women by 2030.
But somewhere along the way, like so much of the progressive left, Cheatle forgot that the Secret Service’s first and foremost obligation is the safety and security of presidents and their families. And that certainly does not incorporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion social engineering.
Maybe this explains why reports have circulated that in the last two years, requests for an increased Secret Service presence around Trump had been denied by agency leadership, even after a recent Iranian plot against him was uncovered.
Some blamed this on agency understaffing. But if so, where was Cheadle in asking for increased funding? She was also deficient in protecting numerous field agents assigned to the White House who were repeatedly bitten by Biden’s dogs (perhaps one of the first telltale signs that something was obviously wrong with Joe). Not to mention, she showed no interest whatsoever in determining whose cocaine was discovered in the White House.
Then there’s the multitude of questions that exist surrounding the Trump shooting which the former director never answered. Once the shooter was declared suspicious, how did he elude Secret Service agents? Why was Trump permitted to go on stage once a threat against him was confirmed 10 minutes before his speech? Why was a nearby water tower also reportedly left unsecured? Why were several entrance access points to the Trump venue left unguarded? If the slope of the building was too extreme for sniper agents, how did the 20-year-old shooter manage to get off eight shots? How was it that no agents inside the building where the shooter was perched heard him on the roof? Why was there no communication between the Secret Service and the local SWAT team?
Other issues worth investigating include: Cheadle’s use of encrypted communication with the White House in violation of federal law, the possible deletion of information from her phone, Cheatle’s lack of cooperation with congressional investigators until she was issued a subpoena and the number of other Secret Service leadership derelict in the Trump shooting.
Although Cheadle initially stated that “the buck stops with me,” she only resigned after bipartisan opposition became too much. Today, we are left with no answers about what went wrong in Butler, Pennsylvania, and only got genuine responses from her when defending how she got her job. America needs to hear the testimony of the agents on the ground!
Like government agencies across the board, the Secret Service is characterized by incompetence and irresponsibility. The lack of trust generated in turn is utterly immeasurable. Accountability is missing. Cheadle was foreign to the concept, but it’s the one thing that ensures that we can collectively have faith in something. And, irony of ironies, the man targeted by the shooter is the only man capable of helping us get there.
Mark Figley is a political activist and guest columnist from Elida. His column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
