Lawmakers call on Secret Service boss to resign

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers called on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to step down in the wake of the assassination attempt of Donald Trump.

The demand came during and after a tense House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday that questioned Ms Cheatle about her agency’s security preparations ahead of a 13 July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that led to the attempt on Trump’s life.

The shooting left one person dead and three other wounded – including the former president.

Monday’s hearing was bruising for Ms Cheatle, as lawmakers ridiculed her answers and the lack of information the agency had made public, but it was also a rare show of bipartisanship on an increasingly polarised Capitol Hill.

For nearly six hours, members sought to answer lingering questions about the shooting, including how suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to get onto a nearby rooftop and why Trump was allowed to take the stage once a suspicious person was reported.

After the hearing, the leading Republican and Democrat from the committee – Reps James Comer and Jamie Raskin – sent a letter to Ms Cheatle that concretely laid out their belief that she should vacate her office.

“In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing,” the letter says. “We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people.”

While Ms Cheatle took responsibility during the hearing for the security lapses and acknowledged that the Butler incident marks “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades”, she left many lawmakers frustrated.