The now-former director of the U.S. Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, testified for several hours before a congressional committee on Monday and was appropriately grilled by lawmakers from both major parties about her agency's failure to prevent an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Cheatle was particularly hounded by progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) over a claimed 60-day timeline for an initial report about the security failure that the congresswoman said was "simply not acceptable," The Hill reported.

The embattled director, who faced bipartisan demands to resign in disgrace during the hearing, finally stepped down from her appointed post on Tuesday.

60-day timeline for report "simply not acceptable"

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez took Director Cheatle to task for her claim that it would be about 60 days before an initial report was released about the July 13 assassination attempt and took note of the "especially concentrated presidential campaign" season and that only around 100 days remained until Election Day.

"So the notion of a report coming out in 60 days when the threat environment is so high in the United States, irrespective of party, is not acceptable," the New York congresswoman said. "And I think it's very important to understand that. This is not theater. This is not about jockeying. This is about the safety of some of the most highly targeted and valued targets, internationally and domestically, in the United States of America."

"So the idea that a report will be finalized in 60 days, let alone prior to any actionable decisions that would be made, is simply not acceptable," she continued. "It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president of the United States, regardless of party. There need to be answers."

"Again, this committee -- this is not a moment of theater. We have to make policy decisions and we have to make them now. We do. And that may require legislation, that may require policy, that we must pass in the immediate term. And without that, we are flying blind," Ocasio-Cortez added. "So the lack of answers and lack of a report is simply not something that we can accept here."

Why was security perimeter shorter than typical range of AR-15 rifle?

Newsweek reported that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez received high praise for her grilling of Secret Service Director Cheatle from numerous supporters of former President Trump who often otherwise deeply disagree with the progressive congresswoman, both for her refusal to accept the 60-day timeline on a report as well as a line of questioning about the lack of a standard security perimeter in relation to the typical range of the AR-15-style rifle the would-be assassin used to fire upon the former president.

Noting that the building the shooter used as a perch was about 200 yards from where Trump was at the rally, Ocasio-Cortez said, "The individual used an AR-15 in order to act on his assassination attempt. An AR-15 has a range of about 400 to 600 yards. My question is, why is the Secret Service protective perimeter shorter than one of the most popular semiautomatic weapons in the United States?"

Cheatle dodged the question and replied that "there are a number of weapons out there with a number of ranges" that are all taken into account when the Secret Service establishes its arbitrary security perimeter, but the congresswoman wasn't buying it.

"So what I'm hearing is that a perimeter was not established outdoors in an outdoor venue that would prevent an AR-15, which is one of the most common weapons used in mass shootings, from being able to be within the range of Secret Service protection," Ocasio-Cortez said.

Agency must be "more forthright" and transparent with public

Ocasio-Cortez concluded her time by noting from her personal experience how reports about "critical" security failures usually take too long to be released, are "not satisfactory" in answering pertinent questions, and "most importantly, corrective action is rarely taken."

She went on to urge Cheatle and the Secret Service to be "more forthright" and transparent with lawmakers and the public about what occurred and what must be addressed, "because the public deserves to have full confidence and the stakes are too high. The violence that could break out in this political moment, regardless of party, in the event of someone getting hurt, constitutes a national security threat to the entire country."