It was nobody else's responsibility but Secret Service to keep Donald Trump safe at his recent rally in Butler, Penn., confirmed Kim Cheatle, the current head of the Secret Service.
In an interview with CNN, Cheatle admitted that the agency she oversees was "totally responsible" for security at the rally, which saw a gunman fire at Trump from around 150 yards away, injuring his ear and several rally attendees, one of whom was killed.
"At that particular site, we divided up areas of responsibility, but the Secret Service is totally responsible for the design and implementation and the execution of the site," Cheatle confessed.
The admission comes as debates rage on over whose responsibility it was to keep Trump and his followers safe during the event. Some say local law enforcement is to blame for what occurred while others blame Secret Service for failing to do its job.
(Related: Did you hear the call that Trump made to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after the assassination attempt to talk about vaccine injuries?)
"The buck stops here," says Cheatle
In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Cheatle went further in calling the shooting "unacceptable" and "something that shouldn't happen again."
The incident marks the first time since 1981 that a former president has been wounded in an attempted assassination – the last time was Ronald Reagan.
"It was obviously a situation that as a Secret Service agent no one ever wants to occur in their career," Cheatle said, implying that she is more upset the incident occurred under her watch because of how bad it makes her look than the fact that it occurred at all.
"The buck stops with me," Cheatle continued, using buck language just a few days ahead of this month's Buck Moon on July 21.
"I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary."
Responding to claims that her agents and the local law enforcement officers they were coordinating with failed to do anything about Thomas Matthew Crooks despite seeing him behaving suspiciously a half hour before he opened fire, Cheatle said it was "a very short period of time" that made it "difficult" to adequately respond in time.
"I don't have all the details yet," she said. "Seeking that person out, finding them, identifying them, and eventually neutralizing them took place in a very short period of time, and it makes it very difficult."
It was local police who were supposed to secure the building atop which the shooter perched himself before opening fire.
"In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site and that the Secret Service was responsible for the inner perimeter," Cheatle explained.
"And then we sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter. There was local police in that building – there was local police in the area that were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building."
Despite continued calls for her to resign from her role, Cheatle, like Joe Biden, says she is not going anywhere and will stay. She reportedly attempted to contact Trump "but has not yet spoken with him."
According to reports, Cheatle is scheduled to testify before the GOP-led House Oversight Committee on July 22.
"Secret Service is not political," Cheatle insists. "Security is not political. People's safety is not political. And that's what we're focused on as an agency."
As we approach election day when Trump's ear should be healed, you can keep up with the latest news about his presidential campaign at Trump.news.
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