CNN
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Following Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Kimberly Cheatle, director of the Pentagon’s Secret Service, said Monday that “the responsibility rests with me.”
“The Secret Service is responsible for protecting the former president,” Cheatle told ABC News on Monday. “That responsibility rests with me. I am the director of the Secret Service.” She has said she plans to remain in her role as director.
He called the shooting “unacceptable,” adding: “This is an incident that should never have happened.”
When asked about his initial reaction to the assassination attempt on Trump, Cheatle said he was “shocked and, naturally, concerned about the former president.”
Cheatle, in his first public comments since the assassination attempt on Trump, said the department would “fully participate” in the independent investigation ordered by President Joe Biden and work with Congress on “all oversight measures.”
Cheatle, a Biden appointee in 2022, expressed confidence in the department’s security plans for this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and said changes were being made to Trump’s security personnel starting Saturday.
“The Secret Service has the great responsibility of protecting the current and former leaders of our democracy,” Cheatle said. “I take this responsibility very seriously and am committed to fulfilling that mission.”
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to Cheatle informing him of a new set of document requests and to preserve all documents and communications related to Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as the committee conducts a separate investigation into the assassination attempt.
CNN’s Annie Grayer and Whitney Wilde contributed to this report.
