Rep. Brecheen Leads Criticism As Secret Service Director Resigns After Trump Assassination Attempt

Facing intense criticism after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the director of the United States Secret Service resigned Tuesday.

Kimberly Cheatle had rejected multiple calls to step down, including from members of the Oklahoma delegation, but told her staff in an email, in light of recent events, she’d made the "difficult decision" to step down.

No member of the state's delegation had been more critical of Cheatle or more aggressive in calling for her resignation than Congressman Josh Brecheen (R-Okla. 2), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and one of about ten committee members who took part Monday in a bipartisan visit to the site of the July 13 Trump rally.

In an interview Tuesday at the Capitol, Brecheen said seeing the grounds for himself was invaluable and gave him a much clearer understanding of just how badly the Secret Service handled security for the rally.

"Extensive, extensive vulnerabilities," Brecheen said.

Brecheen had the chance to stand on the same roof where the 20-year-old gunman aimed, to see the direct line of sight to the stage, and to question why certain obvious precautions weren't taken.

"Drones, high points not manned, the massive number of vulnerabilities," Brecheen underscored. "Why were there no trailers or some other tarping system or screens put up?"

Failing to adequately answer such questions that were asked in an Oversight Committee hearing Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle offered her resignation Tuesday morning, telling her staff in an email, "The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases. As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse."

"She made the right call in stepping down," Brecheen stated plainly, "it should’ve happened earlier."

In a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Tuesday, Brecheen continued to push for answers to procedural questions but pointed out he also has questions about personnel. Specifically, he is concerned that the now-former director's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) agenda may have needlessly endangered the former president.

"I’ve been told time and time again that there were three female officers that were on the advance team--they happen to be female," said Brecheen. "They need to come before a committee [...] or a task force and answer the question, what happened? Did you not have adequate procedures or is this a lack of experience that allowed this to take place?"

Brecheen and other conservative Republicans have raised the gender issue since the assassination attempt, concerned that USSS leadership may have been sacrificing quality, in order to meet a gender-specific hiring goal.

Along the same lines, Rep. Brecheen also introduced legislation this week to replace the current gender-specific physical fitness standards for Secret Service agents with one set of gender-neutral standards. He says there are plenty of former female agents who support this.

"Why? Because they understand that you’re talking about people's lives," Brecheen stated, "and we do not need to be curtailing certain things to create political statements. People's lives are at stake."