Scalise urges Secret Service director to step down over Trump assassination attempt

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise on Tuesday called for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign over the failure to prevent an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last weekend.

The former president was wounded in the right ear during a shooting at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday afternoon, which resulted in the death of one attendee and the suspected shooter. Two other civilians in the audience were critically wounded.  

Cheatle, who admitted that the failure was on her as the director of the agency, said she will not resign and will oversee the agency's review.

“I've been very disappointed in her and her lack of candor,” Scalise told Politico of Cheatle in an interview in Milwaukee. “I think the Secret Service head should have been out publicly right away. ... You had the local law enforcement giving a press conference, frankly, being asked questions that the head of service should have been asked."

Scalise said members of Congress are still waiting for answers to "basic questions" about the security resources and technology that had been available at the rally, which he claimed the public deserved to know about. But he praised the FBI for labeling the attack an "assassination attempt" early on.

The congressman said the attack also brought back memories of his own shooting at a practice for the Congressional baseball game in 2017. Scalise was shot in the hip at the time, and he nearly lost his life.

“A lot of emotions started coming back. I immediately started praying,” he said. “I heard the 'pop, pop, pop.' It was eerily similar.”

House Oversight and Homeland Security Committees have scheduled hearings on the attempted Trump assassination next week, where Cheatle is expected to testify.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.