By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Eastern Kansas Congressman Jake LaTurner is pleased Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned in wake of the failed assassination attempt against Donald Trump.
“Well, it was something that had to happen,” LaTurner tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in a phone interview from his Washington, D.C. office. “She was clearly incompetent. You had bipartisan calls for her to resign or to be fired. The bottom line is this, we had a former president and a nominee of a major party get shot just over a week ago. And, without him turning his head, he is dead right now.”
Cheatle stepped down shortly after a bruising appearance before the U.S. House Oversight Committee. Cheatle had faced mounting criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for the Secret Service breakdown that nearly led to the death of Trump during a July 13th outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A shot struck and killed 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, who attended the rally. Two others at the rally were wounded. Officers shot and killed the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
LaTurner, a Republican, is a member of the House Oversight Committee.
“I’m hopeful that her departure is going to mean opportunity for the Secret Service to get this right, because it doesn’t matter what party, it doesn’t matter the circumstances, we cannot allow something like this to happen again.”
The deputy director of the Secret Service has been named acting director. Cheatle had been director since August of 2022.
LaTurner says Cheatle failed to answer the questions posed by members of the committee.
“My line of questioning to her centered around the inconsistencies with the way she answered questions,” LaTurner says.
LaTurner says Cheatle could have shared with the committee certain facts about the event that would not have compromised the investigation into the assassination attempt, facts that he says the American public need.
“Trust in the American government is at an all-time low,” according to LaTurner. “The only way to build back trust with the American people is to level with them, to tell them exactly what’s happening, to tell them the truth, and to be transparent. And that’s not what’s happening here.”
LaTurner adds if government doesn’t provide answers, conspiracy theories arise to fill the gap.
“Further eroding the very, very little trust that the American people have in their government is not something that I want to participate in.”
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