OPINION:
MILWAUKEE — Kimberly Cheatle, director of the Secret Service, suggested on ABC News that one reason the shooter was able to graze Donald Trump’s ear with a bullet was the “sloped roof” upon which he perched was a “safety factor” for law enforcement — so to keep them safe, she stuck all the agents inside the building. That’s a blunder of epic proportions. She should be immediately fired, particularly since she also, in the same interview, admitted that “the buck stops with me.”
But she won’t. Cheatle will stay on — and stay on — and stay on — to infinity and beyond, if possible; she’ll stay until some sort of scandalous finding makes it impossible to stay; she’ll stay until the office and title is peeled from her cold dead hands.
Cheatle will stay because Democrats have a low bar for performance, and simply put, incompetence, to them, isn’t a fireable offense — no, not even when the incompetence is acknowledged, admitted and confessed.
“[T]he Secret Service is responsible for the protection of the former president,” she said on ABC. “[T]he buck stops with me; I am the director of the Secret Service.”
True, true, Ms. Cheatle.
“[It] was unacceptable,” she said of the assassination attempt on Trump, “This is an event that never should have happened.”
True again, Ms. Cheatle. True again. And yet — it did. But still — she won’t leave.
“Secret Service director says she will not resign after attempted Trump assassination,” The Hill wrote.
“I do plan to stay on,” Cheatle said on ABC News.
The Washington Post, bless its little heart, wrote the headline this way: “Secret Service chief says she won’t resign after Trump rally shooting.” Trump rally shooting? It’d be funny, if it weren’t so near-deadly.
So, too, is Cheatle’s finger-pointing.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point,” she said. “And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.”
Yes, protect the agents at all costs.
Congress is calling for investigations into the Secret Service response, and specifically Cheatle’s role. But any investigation should be secondary to Cheatle’s firing.
President Biden, struggling to stay afloat in a contentious reelection campaign, could take a stand and fire her now. It’d show a commitment to law and order, as well as a resolve to protect the very political opponent he’s been accused of using his deep state to target. The Democrats in Congress could use their political platforms to pressure Cheatle to leave — to exit, stage left, if only for the good of the party. The voters in the Democrat Party could come to their senses, if only momentarily, and drop their video game controllers and put away their CBD stashes and demand their elected leaders do the right thing and get rid of the lady who failed to protect Trump from a shooter.
But none of that will happen.
Cheatle will stay on because Democrats, in the end, protect the incompetent.
When Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin oversaw the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan — the one that led to the death of Americans and civilians alike — he kept his job. He kept his title. When Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was tasked with building all the new electric-vehicle charging stations needed to buoy Biden’s big clean energy car dreams, but with $7.5 billion at his disposal, only constructed eight — he kept his job. He kept his title. When Vice President Kamala Harris was appointed by Biden in 2021 as the so-called “border czar” and told to go south and find the root causes of migration, and she didn’t even bother to visit the U.S.-Mexico border — she kept her job. She kept her title. When Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas advanced the lie of a border agent whipping Haitian migrants, and then continued the lie even though he knew it was a lie — he kept his job. He kept his title. And he continues to this day to keep his job and his title despite the fact he doesn’t protect the border or secure the safety of American citizens, and has constantly failed to carry out the core mission of his agency.
When Biden campaigned from the comfort of his basement because he was too fragile to go out on the trail — when he then called out dead people, told a wheelchair-bound man to stand for applause, called his vice president the president, referred to Ukraine President Zelenskyy as Russia President Putin, stumbled on stage, stumbled off stage, stumbled up stairs, fell off his bike, and generally mumbled incoherently at every press conference and public appearance he’s made over the last four years — when he oversaw the incompetence of all his Cabinet members and stood by them as they failed to perform even their most basic of duties and responsibilities — when he stuttered and faltered and stopped mid-sentence then leaned forward and whispered his creepy whispers and smiled his creepy smiles as he spoke words with no meaning — when he generally proved himself time and time again to be a feckless, brain dead and physically weak leader — he kept his job. He kept his title.
Democrats now only want to get rid of Biden because polls show he can’t win against Trump.
They don’t really care that he’s incompetent. They only care that the American people have seen his incompetence and don’t want to vote for him.
That the Secret Service failed in its core duty and mission to protect Trump from a killer — despite the fact that agents and officers working under the agency had ample warning from rallygoers and bystanders of the shooter’s presence — is not so much a surprise as it is a “more of the same” moment. This is the Secret Service working under the party with members who have tried to abolish police around the nation, for crying out loud. Is there any greater tell of an incompetent mind than calling for police to not police? That kind of message is a poison that infects all and doesn’t disappear so easily or quickly.
Thing is, Democrats will carry and cover for their incompetents, so long as their incompetents can be used and exploited to advance their agendas. To them it’s not about the American people; it’s about political wins.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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