We won’t pretend to know if this claim true, but there are what we will call ‘rumors’ going around that Director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle will resign as soon as Monday. And it is easy to believe that it will happen because it clearly should happen. But as we said just this morning in the context of Joe Biden possibly resigning or being removed, just because something should happen, doesn’t mean it will happen. In any case, while many people are posting the reports of such an incoming resignation, the original source of this claim appears to be Ryan Fournier:
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But even presuming that Fournier is accurate in reporting what this friend said, and even if that friend is striving to be accurate, it is easy to imagine a situation where that person is just plain wrong. Anyone who has played ‘telephone’ knows why it is dangerous to say ‘I heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy.’ So, we’re not saying anyone involved are necessarily dishonest or even foolish, just that we don’t trust sourcing like this.
This comes amid even more revelations of Secret Service failures last Saturday, when the once and future president Trump was shot in the ear and Democracy was almost shot right in the heart. The Hill has a summary of some of the big revelations of those failures, here:
And Clay Travis shares a new revelation:
And this author—and many other others at this website—have written about the litany of failures that led to the shooting of Donald Trump:
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That includes a report that that the rules of engagement seemed to be well-designed to allow an assassination to occur. In that prior coverage, we quoted Real Clear Politics as saying:
A source within the Secret Service community told RCP that the agency’s rules of engagement in this situation are for a counter sniper who suspects an armed threat to radio the lead agent in charge and wait for a green light or wait until the president is fired upon to return fire.
That claim about the rules of engagement was disputed, but sure as heck fits with what we know about what happened that day. As we wrote in that prior piece:
Gross negligence is the best explanation for this security failure. And the worst explanation is a deliberate decision to neglect Donald Trump’s safety. That is the range of explanations. There is no version of events where everyone involved did a good job. Indeed, if we were Trump, we would consider hiring our own heavily armed security.
We’re not saying we are convinced that the Biden administration intentionally neglected Trump’s security in the hope that someone would take out Trump, but we haven’t seen any evidence ruling it out, either, so it remains within the realm of possibility.
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We usually are happy with someone giving a person a chance to resign rather than the shame of being fired. But sometimes a person fails so hard, they deserve that shame.
He is ultimately responsible for denying Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Secret Service protection, which is absolute proof they are playing political games with the Secret Service, at least at the top.
Honestly, our main concern is that we see policy changes, rather than just personnel changes. The rules of engagement need to allow for the Secret Service to proactively take out threats. And for the love of G-d, they need to cover every roof. Even the sloped ones.
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We are honestly stunned we have to actually write any of that. We could probably have done a better job running the on-site protection for Trump than the Secret Service did last Saturday. We don’t say that based on a belief that we are somehow great security experts—we aren’t. It’s more like an insult: They have failed so hard, that a rank security amateur like this author could do better.
Or she is a patsy.
One of the strongest moments Trump had in the debate with Biden (besides not having ‘resting Twenty-Fifth Amendment face’ like Biden) was when he pointed out that for all the disasters in the Biden administration, no one was ever fired. Here’s video of that moment:
It’s an underrated moment in the debate. A good manager simply has to fire people now and then.
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Agreed.
The cut off text:
The reason she didn’t resign right away is she’s been negotiating all this.
That sounds like speculation. But we admit it is plausible.
Embrace the power of ‘and.’