October 17, 2024
The Secret Service got skewered in a new scathing report released today assessing the problems with the Secret Service. The report found problems are not just surface level –the issues run much much deeper. In fact the report says there should be new leadership at the Secret Service preferably from outside the agency and the Secret Service needs to get rid of all the other things it does and refocus on its core protective mission.
Those are just some of the key take aways after the Secret Service’s massive failure that led to the assassination attempt of former President Trump at his rally in Butler Pennsylvania in July. This 52-page report which was released this morning was commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security to try and get to the bottom of what happened. The independent review panel responsible for this report was made up of four law enforcement experts who worked under Presidents George W Bush and Obama or worked in state law enforcement and has been working on it since August. The report includes a timeline of exactly what happened before, during and after the assassination attempt.
The independent panel found yeah, there were problems in butler but things are much worse if you look under the hood. “taken together these issues reveal deep flaws in the secret service including some that appear to be systemic or cultural.”
According to the report, those deeper concerns include the fact that no one took ownership of the failure after the assassination attempt, like everyone started pointing fingers at someone else. That there was a “troubling lack of critical thinking” by Secret Service personnel both before, during and after July 13th when it came to assessing the level of risk associated with a rally like that one, a lack of training facilities and lack of commitment to training on core protection mission, and an ineffective “speak up” practice which lead to agents who knew the shooter was suspicious not effectively communicating that concern to former President Trump’s detail or other local agents on the ground. The panel found *that* is secret service cultural problem.
The report gave several recommendations the secret service should implement immediately. Of course – getting a new director who is not promoted from within the service. The expert panel believes the service needs a fresh perspective. The panel says the secret service currently has a $3.1 billion budget and about 3200 special agents. But right now – those agents are stretched too thin. In case you didn’t know the Secret Service does other things besides protecting the president, vice president and former presidents. They also investigate financial fraud and investigate other types of crimes. The report said that’s gotta stop. “there is simply no excuse to need to “do more with less” concerning protection of national leaders; unless and until those responsibilities are fulfilled, no resources (funds or time) should be allocated to other missions that are not centrally related to the protective function.”
This is just one of the independent reviews of the Secret Service. It’s now up to the Homeland Security secretary and Congress to decide whether to implement and how to implement these recommendations.
Read the bipartisan independent Secret Service review report here.
