DANVILLE, Ill. (WAND) - The Secret Service Director who is under scrutiny following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has ties to Central Illinois.
Kim Cheatle is a 1988 graduate of Schlarman High School, the News Gazette reports.
Cheatle said she is confident in the Secret Service's plan to provide security for the Republican National Convention, which started Monday in Milwaukee.
A shooter took aim at former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa. Saturday, hitting Trump in the ear. A civilian was killed, and others were injured.
Cheatle said the Secret Service is working with federal, state and local agencies "to understand what happened, how it happened, and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again."
"The incident in Pennsylvania has understandably led to questions about potential updates or changes to the security for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee," Cheatle said in Monday's statement. "... I am confident in the security plan our Secret Service RNC coordinator and our partners have put in place, which we have reviewed and strengthened in the wake of Saturday’s shooting.
"The security plans for National Special Security Events are designed to be flexible. As the conventions progress, and in accordance with the direction of the President, the Secret Service will continuously adapt our operations as necessary in order to ensure the highest level of safety and security for convention attendees, volunteers and the city of Milwaukee.
"In addition to the additional security enhancements we provided former President Trump's detail in June, we have also implemented changes to his security detail since Saturday to ensure his continued protection for the convention and the remainder of the campaign."
The shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa. opened fire from a rooftop near the rally.
Cheatle was named Secret Service Director by President Joe Biden in 2022. She was with the secret service overseeing protective operations for U.S. leaders for more than 25 years, the News Gazette reports.
She was the senior director at PepsiCo, responsible for managing facilities, personnel and business functions, when she got the call from Biden's office.
"Kim had had a long and distinguished career at the Secret Service, having risen through the ranks during her 27 years with the agency, becoming the first woman in the role of assistant director of protective operations," Biden said in 2022.
The News-Gazette interviewed Cheatle last October. In that interview, she said, "I probably am in law enforcement today as a direct result of my brother,” who died in a car accident in 1988." She was just starting to become a state trooper at the time of his death.
She majored in sociology and graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 1992. By that time, she had already applied for a job as a Secret Service agent.
Cheatle was honored by EIU in 2023 with a Distinguished Alumni award and participated in a recruiting event in Charleston.
“I use that when I speak to students and new recruits that we have now, that I did not come from a family that was in law enforcement or the military,” she told the News Gazette. “I was hired by the service and trained, and I think that’s one of the things the agency does very well.”
Cheatle worked on Biden's security detail when he was vice president. Before that she had served on former Vice President Dick Cheney's detail.
The News Gazette reports Cheatle was previously turned down for a role with the Secret Service when she applied in college but was accepted into a position at the Detroit field office two years later.
After four-and-a-half years in Detroit, she was assigned to Cheney’s detail.
She was in the Executive Building while Cheney was in the West Wing of the White House on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when she watched the first of two planes crash into the World Trade Center on television, the News Gazette reports.
She got a call on her radio notifying her and her team that another plane may be headed to the White House. She and the other agents rushed to the West Wing to shuttle the vice president to a security bunker.
“If you talk to any law-enforcement agency, they will tell you that when crises occur, they fall back on their training,” she told the paper. “During an event like that, that’s what I’ve always done. That sort of calmness sets in and you fall back on your training, and you think about it later. For us, that’s very important.”
This story first appeared on The News Gazette.
