Impeached Security Chief Mayorkas: 100% Confidence in Secret Service Chief

Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle has “100 percent” backing from her immediate boss, the impeached Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas.

“I have 100% confidence in the director of the United States State Secret Service,” Mayorkas told journalists at a Monday press conference in the White House. He quickly switched the subject, saying:

I have 100 percent confidence in the United States Secret Service. And what you saw on stage on Saturday, with respect to individuals putting their own lives at risk for the protection of another, is exactly what the American public should see every single day. It is what I indeed do [see].

Cheatle was appointed by President Joe Biden in August 2022, but her agency is part of Mayorkas’s vast department.

Under Cheatle’s watch, a sniper got a clear shot at President Donald Trump at a distance of less than 200 yards. The shot clipped Trump’s ear.

Mayorkas was impeached by the House in February. In April, the Senate’s Democratic majority voted down the charges in a rushed and partisan process.

The president “has confidence” in Cheatle, Biden spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre later told the reporters.

Mayorkas told the press he would quickly create a commission to investigate the failure:

We’re going to commence the independent review as quickly as possible. We are going to be reaching out very, very shortly to individuals who will hopefully lead that independent review, and I will communicate to those leaders the need for swiftness of action in light of the fact that we are dealing with the security protocol … I am committed to going externally of the department, externally of the government, so that no question of its independence can be raised.

“Days,” he says when asked about the timeline.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks to the Associated Press during an interview at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Friday, June 21, 2024, in Washington. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

Mayorkas was asked if the Secret Service is stretched too thin. He answered:

The Secret Service in times like this calls upon other resources and capabilities in a campaign of this magnitude. This has been the case in each and every presidential campaign. We draw upon resources, not only across the federal government, but with state and local law enforcement, and I do intend to speak with members of the hill with respect to the resources that we need.

“It is very important that this independent review have the confidence of the people,” Mayorkas said.