How to Fix the Secret Service Before It Fails Again

After the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last month—in which the bullet missed achieving lethality by less than an inch—Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was called on the carpet by the House Oversight Committee. On July 22, she took full responsibility for the failure to protect Trump, whose ear was nicked by the bullet. In a spasm of self-contradiction, however, she then declared that she would stay on the job “and be responsible to the agency, to this committee, to the former president and to the American public.”

That taking responsibility and accepting accountability might entail offering her resignation was not Cheatle’s considered view. However, the avalanche not of criticism but of condemnation that she received from the committee led to an abrupt about-face and resignation the day after her testimony.