Republicans are pushing hard for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, and they are willing to take drastic action to force her out.
Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill are furious over what they described as a lack of accountability and discipline in the aftermath of Saturday’s horrific incident at a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Some have threatened to defund her salary and conduct independent investigations, and public congressional hearings are already getting put on committee schedules — all as Cheatle has maintained that she is here to stay.
In her first interview since the incident, Cheatle told ABC News on Monday that she would not resign but added that “the buck stops with me.”
However, Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) threatened Tuesday to reduce Cheatle’s salary to $1 if she does not step down.
“Cheatle needs to resign. If not, I’m going to utilize the Holman Rule to take her salary down to $1 and ask her to leave,” Mills told Real America’s Voice host Charlie Kirk Tuesday outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “I texted Speaker Johnson today, and I said, ‘I want to head a J-13 [July 13th] commission. I want a full investigation away from the FBI, who is the corrupt deep state.’”
Mills is not the only Republican seeking to cut Cheatle’s pay, with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) introducing a bill to withhold all federal funding to pay Cheatle her salary Monday evening.
“I’ve introduced legislation to hold Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle accountable for the agency’s incompetence and failure to protect President Trump during the Butler, Pennsylvania campaign rally,” Boebert said in a post to X.
Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who is close to the former president, has been a leader in the charge for justice on Trump’s behalf. Greene has continued to call for Cheatle’s resignation, including again Tuesday morning in an interview she shared on social media.
“The DEI hire Secret Service Director should RESIGN after Saturday’s catastrophic failure,” Greene said. “Secretary Mayorkas is responsible as well. I already tried to fire him after the House passed my Articles of Impeachment. We expect the Secret Service Director to appear in front of the Oversight Committee on Monday.”
Billionaire tech investor Elon Musk was among the first to publicly call for Cheatle’s resignation, as well as the departure of the lead agent in charge of Trump’s detail.
“The head of the Secret Service and the leader of this security detail should resign,” Musk wrote in a post to X hours afterward.
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took the call a step further and demanded a resignation from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who the House impeached earlier this year for his handling of the border crisis.
“The head of Secret Service should resign. So should the head of DHS,” said Cruz in a post to X on Monday.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) called the Saturday incident the “worst security failure for a president since JFK,” a reference to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
