Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/24/secret-service-director-kimberly-cheatle-resigns-over-attempted-trump-assassination.html
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For anyone who was wondering like I was: she was appointed in 2022 by Biden.
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The Secret Service are just cops. They might be a little more physically fit and skilled than other cops (on average), and they do have different training as they focus a lot on protection. But they’re just cops.
Dan Oingoboingo (Bongino) was in the Secret Service and he’s a fucking idiot.
It doesn’t help things that Trump is a cheap bastard and ops for cheaper outdoor venues, where are harder to secure.
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The former Obama administration officials on Pod Save America were talking about this screwup a little, and the weird, awkward dynamic that any presidential administration has with its Secret Service. It’s apparently always been a little tricky for an administration to effectively scrutinize a group of people that
- Operate largely in secret (right there in the name!) and on a need-to-know basis
- Are (theoretically) willing to put their lives on the line to protect the head of the administration.
- Who are right there, in your presence, every single day. (So things can get pretty personal.)
But this wasn’t the only screwup in recent years. There was that whole scandal about agents hiring sex workers in a trip to Columbia in 2012.
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Just know that however badly you screwed up this week, you did not screw up as badly as Kimberly Cheatle. Unless you are Crowdstrike.
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Not remotely a Trump fan, but that they allowed the person close enough to attempt meant she had to go. I don’t see there was any other way for her.
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That and her apparent unwillingness or inability to answer some very straightforward and reasonable questions at the hearing. That pissed off lawmakers on both sides of the isle.
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Hear an NPR interview with a former USSS director who was not happy with the hearing at all, as it happened as the investigation into the event was ongoing. His take was that she could not answer their questions fully because she could not get ahead of that. He said the response was exemplary, but that there were multiple failures in the preparation and securing of the site beforehand. Who actually dropped the ball there is not known at this time, but, at the end of the day, the buck stopped with her. She probably had to go, but she did what she had to do there.
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“Hiring sex workers is fun!”
“I didn’t say we weren’t fun, but fun or not, cops are still the baddies”
I flip on the news and the teevee is showing the Republican members of the oversight committee in quick clips in a gong show grilling of the Secret Service director. If Cheatle was clearly in the wrong, there’s no way the idiot wing of the committee could find themselves on the right side of the issue. This is actually turning into an entertaining week for anyone who enjoys karma. 
… nothing gets politicians’ attention like an assassination attempt 
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Because I’m under-caffeinated, I read that as “… former USSR director”.
“Huh. NPR’s got some interesting folks points of view here.”
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