US Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle has resigned following security failures surrounding an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
“As your director, I take full responsibility for this security breach,” Cheatle said in a resignation letter to agency staff Tuesday.
She had faced calls from Democrats and Republicans to resign after a contentious House committee hearing on the incident on Monday.
Lawmakers grew increasingly frustrated when she refused to answer questions about the shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this month.
In her resignation letter, Cheatle said she had always “put the needs of the agency first” and that it was “with a heavy heart” that she made her decision.
“Surveillance has been intense over the past week and will continue to be as our operational tempo increases,” she said.
“I do not want my calls for your resignation to distract from the tremendous work each of you is doing in support of our vital mission.”
President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was grateful for his decades of public service.
“The independent investigation to shed full light on what happened on July 13 continues and I look forward to assessing its findings. We all know that what happened that day can never happen again,” he said.
Mr Biden said he would appoint a new director soon.
For now, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has named Ronald Rowe as the agency’s acting director.
Mr. Rowe, a 24-year veteran of the Secret Service, has served as deputy director since April 2023.
The president nominated Ms. Cheatle to head the Secret Service — which oversees the protection of current and former presidents and other officials — in 2022. She previously served 27 years at the agency in various roles.
During her career as an agent, Ms. Cheatle participated in the evacuation of Vice President Dick Cheney from the White House during the attacks of September 11, 2001.
She then became a supervisor of Mr Biden’s protection team when he was vice president, before becoming deputy assistant director of protective operations.
But his leadership has been called into question after the shooting at Trump’s rally on July 13, in which a bullet grazed the former president’s ear.
The attack left one spectator dead and two others seriously injured.
Lawmakers questioned Cheatle about security preparations ahead of the campaign rally during the tense six-hour House Oversight Committee hearing.
Ms Cheatle has taken responsibility for the security failures but has rejected calls for her to resign.
She called the shooting “the most significant operational failure by intelligence in decades.”
Witnesses reported seeing a suspicious man – suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks – with a rifle on a rooftop at the rally minutes before shots were fired.
Crooks was killed by a sniper shortly afterward.
Security officers and law enforcement from several different agencies were present at the rally.
During his testimony, Cheatle did not provide lawmakers with any new information about how Crooks gained access to the rooftop where he was perched or why Trump was allowed on stage.
After the hearing, the committee’s top Republican and top Democrat – James Comer and Jamie Raskin – sent a letter to Ms. Cheatle outlining their belief that she should resign.
Mr Comer said Ms Cheatle “did not inspire any confidence” during the hearing about her ability to fulfill the Secret Service’s protective mission.
“The Oversight Committee hearing resulted in Director Cheatle’s resignation and there will be more accountability to come,” he said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.
In a message posted on his social media account Tuesday, Trump said: “The Biden/Harris administration failed to protect me properly, and I was forced to take a bullet for democracy.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called her resignation “overdue” and said he was “glad she did the right thing.”
“We now have to pick up the pieces, we have to rebuild the faith and trust of the American people in the Secret Service,” he told reporters.
Teresa Wilson, a former marine who attended the rally, told the BBC she was “glad (Ms Cheatle) succumbed to the pressure”.
“I hope they will continue the independent investigation now that she has resigned. We want answers,” she said.