Kimberly Cheatle had been facing calls to step down since the assassination attempt on the former president earlier this month
Kimberly Cheatle has resigned as director of the US Secret Service, after refusing to do so in the wake of the attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
A shooter nicked Trump’s ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, killing one person in the audience and injuring two others before Secret Service snipers managed to neutralize him. Thomas Crooks was able to position himself on a roof that had a clear shot to where Trump was speaking, which the protective detail had inexplicably left unguarded.
Cheatle tendered her resignation on Tuesday morning, one day after an acrimonious congressional hearing during which both Republicans and Democrats accused her of withholding information and refusing to take responsibility for security failures at the rally.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed,” Cheatle told the House Oversight Committee on Monday, describing the Butler shooting as the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”
Even though Cheatle took “full responsibility” for the lapse at the congressional hearing, she insisted she was “the best person” to lead the agency at this time, and stated that she had “full confidence in the men and women of the Secret Service.”
On Tuesday, she sent out an email informing agency staff of her departure.
“In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your director,” she wrote, according to AP.
President Joe Biden confirmed Cheatle’s resignation, thanking her “for her service to our family” and announcing that he would be appointing a new director soon, according to a statement posted on the White House website.
Cheatle faced calls to resign almost immediately after the incident, but resisted for more than a week. In an ABC News interview, she tried to justify the absence of Secret Service agents on the roof from which Crooks shot by saying it was too “sloped” and posed a security hazard.
Damning details have continued to emerge ever since. Whistleblowers have said the protection detail at the rally was composed mainly of Homeland Security personnel and temporary Secret Service agents. By the time Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention, he had a different set of agents as his bodyguards.
The FBI is currently conducting a criminal investigation into the assassination attempt. The Department of Homeland Security, to which the Secret Service belongs, has opened three internal investigations into security lapses. Congress is also discussing a probe into the events in Butler.
https://www.rt.com/news/601550-secret-service-director-resigns/
Volker Turk has warned that efforts to advance reparatory justice are facing resistance in “certain quarters,” and urged countries to back Africa’s push.
Reparatory justice for historical crimes, including colonialism, enslavement, and the trade in enslaved Africans, is crucial to dismantling systemic racism, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said.
Speaking at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent on Tuesday, Turk linked present-day discrimination against people from the continent to the enduring legacy of colonialism and enslavement.
”Racism and dehumanizing rhetoric continue to permeate public institutions, communities, and online platforms,” he said, according to the UN Press Service. Turk noted that “digital technologies, including AI, are reproducing and amplifying existing biases against people of African descent.”
The remarks come weeks after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest...
The US VP had to defend President Trump’s Gaza policy at a rally on a Georgia college campus.
US Vice President J.D. Vance was forced to defend Washington’s policy in Gaza after he was booed and heckled at a key MAGA event on Wednesday.
Co-founded by the late Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is a conservative student group that has long been seen as a strong support base of President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement but is now showing apparent cracks.
Less than 15 minutes into a TPUSA event at the University of Georgia on Wednesday, Vance was interrupted by hecklers over US policy in Gaza, with one audience member shouting, “Jesus Christ does not support genocide!” As he attempted to respond, others shouted, “You’re killing children!” and “You’re bombing children!”
Vance replied by referring to Trump’s achievements as president, including securing a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, something he said the previous administration of Joe Biden failed to do.
“I ...
Sergey Shoigu has cautioned Finland and the Baltic states against allowing Kiev to use their airspace for attacks on Russia.
Russia would have the right to retaliate if Finland and the Baltic states are deliberately allowing Ukrainian drones to pass through their airspace, Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said on Thursday.
“Recently, there has been an increase in Ukrainian drone strikes against Russia via Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia,” Shoigu told journalists. “As a result, civilians are suffering and significant damage is being caused to civilian infrastructure.”
Either Western air defenses are proving ineffective, or these four countries “deliberately provide their airspace, thereby becoming open accomplices in aggression against Russia,” he added. In the latter case, Moscow has the right to self-defense in response to an “armed attack” under Article 51 of the UN Charter, the security chief stressed.
In recent weeks, Kiev has intensified drone strikes on ...
