Kimberly Cheatle, head of the prestigious Secret Service in charge of protecting American public figures, acknowledged a failure at a congressional hearing

Under fire since the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13, the director of the Secret Service has resigned, several US media outlets, including CNN, NBC and CNBC, reported on Tuesday July 23. The Secret Service, contacted by AFP, has not yet reacted.

Kimberly Cheatle, head of this elite service, had admitted at a congressional hearing on Monday that the agency had failed in its mission to protect the Republican candidate. “As director, I take full responsibility for any security breach,” she had said, calling the incident ‘the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades’.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer opened the hearing by asserting that this “tragedy was avoidable”, and expressing his belief that Kimberly Cheatle “should resign”.