On Sunday, President Biden ordered an “independent review” of Secret Service security measures after Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate former President Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In addition to ordering the Secret Service to examine all of its security protocols for this week’s Republican National Convention, President Biden on Sunday asked for an “independent review” of the security measures put in place both before and after the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump.
Though succinct and vague, Mr. Biden’s order is expected to heighten the examination of the choices and potential shortcomings of the organization tasked primarily with safeguarding the lives of the nation’s leaders, both past and present, as well as their families reports The New York Times.
Congressmen were promising hearings less than twenty-four hours after Mr. Trump was shot during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and former law enforcement officers were raising concerns about why the warehouse roof where Bethel Park, Pennsylvania’s Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin, fired shots was not inside the Secret Service’s security perimeter even though it was within shooting range of some weapons.
The presumed Republican nominee, Mr. Trump, was escorted off the stage and declared OK, but the shooter got remarkably near to making his target. Two spectators were badly injured and one spectator was killed in the shooting.
Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, stated on NBC on Sunday that “Congress will do a full investigation of the tragedy yesterday to determine where there were lapses in security and anything else that the American people need to know and deserve to know.”
In addition, Kimberly A. Cheatle, the head of the Secret Service, was invited to testify at a hearing on July 22 by the chair of the House oversight committee.
The president’s and Congress’s demands for explanations will probably lead to another round of reckoning for an agency that has had its fair share over the last 20 years. Administrative and cultural changes have been made to the Secret Service in recent years in response to allegations of drunkenness, careless behavior, and almost-missed security breaches. The assassination attempt on Saturday will undoubtedly rank among the most serious additions to that list.
However, there isn’t much time for in-depth introspection. This week in Milwaukee, the Republican National Convention gets underway. The annual convention has been declared a National Special Security Event, and the Secret Service has pledged a significant number of uniformed and plainclothes law enforcement agents from other agencies will be there. The Secret Service can access more federal resources because of this classification, which is typically applied to major gatherings like the UN General Assembly.
In a letter to Ms. Cheatle on Sunday, Representative Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona and a former military corporal, questioned whether the Trump campaign had asked for more resources for the event and whether a proper evaluation of the location had been carried out. Mr. Gallego also questioned whether or not Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential contender whose father was assassinated in 1968, should be granted Secret Service protection after all.
When arranging security for gatherings like the one on Saturday, the Secret Service frequently consults with local law enforcement. The agency bears direct responsibility for the security measures within the event’s designated boundary. That was the protected party, the audience, and the venue in this instance, according to the agency’s spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi.
Since the gunman’s location was beyond the perimeter, local law enforcement would have been responsible for securing the premises. According to Mr. Guglielmi, there were four countersniper teams on Saturday: two from the Secret Service and two from the local police.
According to Mr. Guglielmi, Saturday’s events happened quickly. According to Mr. Guglielmi, the local police were notified by bystanders that they had spotted someone suspicious before the shooting. Not long later, a man was observed setting fire to the adjoining warehouse from its roof.
After the individual began firing, a Secret Service countersniper saw him and opened fire, killing him, according to Mr. Guglielmi. He claimed that the gunman wasn’t “camped out” on the roof. Later on, an AR-15-style gun was discovered next to Mr. Crooks’s corpse.
However, the question of why the adjoining building where the gunman took up such a favorable position was not part of the Secret Service’s protective perimeter is occupying the attention of former law enforcement officials, even some with ties to the agency.
Did we overlook anything? And if we did overlook something, we must own up to it,” said Robert E. McDonald, a University of New Haven instructor and former 20-year Secret Service agent. Mr. McDonald questioned why there were not more countersnipers keeping a closer eye on that building by the Secret Service.
“We’re not looking at any skyscrapers here,” he said. “They should be able to see that. And if somebody is up there, they should be able to send law enforcement personnel up there to check that out.”
According to retired law enforcement officials, the Secret Service’s presidential detail advance teams look through the venue in advance of an event like a rally to assess manpower and resource requirements. They also determine the extent of the president’s security perimeter.
A former official stated that the perimeter is separated into three areas: the area immediately surrounding the president’s lectern, the center area, and the outer area. According to a retired Secret Service official who has created security plans for numerous presidential speeches and events, the neighboring building should have been part of the middle perimeter around Mr. Trump, and a sniper team should have been stationed on the rooftop of the structure.
Concerning how long it took the Secret Service to remove Mr. Trump from the stage, law enforcement authorities also had questions. A former Secret Service official said that the Secret Service once seemed to slow down to give Mr. Trump time to put on his shoes and pump his fist, which was unusual.
“If that’s me there, no. We are going, and we are going now,” declared Jeffrey James, a 22-year Secret Service veteran who retired in 2018 and is currently the chief of police at Pennsylvania’s Robert Morris University. “I’m going to get him a new pair of shoes if it’s me.”
On Sunday, Secret Service agents were also privately messaging and contacting one other, asking why Ms. Cheatle had not been more widely visible following the shooting. Ms. Cheatle was not present at the news conference that local and federal law officials conducted on Saturday night to discuss the shooting.
When Mr. Biden was vice president, Ms. Cheatle—who had been in the Secret Service for over thirty years—was assigned to his protection detail. As the Secret Service dealt with the aftermath of congressional inquiries involving the removal of agents’ text messages during the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, she was selected to head the agency in 2022, resigning from an executive role with PepsiCo.
On Sunday, Ms. Cheatle thanked her agents in a memo for their handling of the shooting.
In the document, which The New York Times saw, she stated, “The attempted assassination of former President Trump in Butler, Pa., is a moment that forever will be remembered in history,” said the memo, which was reviewed by The New York Times. “The Secret Service moved quickly in this situation and neutralized the threat.”
However, her memo did not specifically address concerns over the lapses in planning and preparation that made it possible for the gunman to position himself to shoot Mr. Trump.
“In the coming days, the Secret Service will face praise and criticism,” she wrote. “Do not get distracted by those who were not there and yet still pass judgment.”
Law enforcement officials who handled the event for the Secret Service were defended by some.
“The agents did their job,” said Cheryl Tyler, a former member of the Secret Service protective division and training instructor for the agency. “That’s a chaotic moment. It’s a stressful moment.”
However, she also agreed that a border should be established around Mr. Trump.
“The outside venues, with no protection, no cover, no building structure, those are hard to protect,” Ms. Tyler said. “You have no boundaries. You have to create a boundary. You have to create a buffer.”
Explore exclusive GGI coverage of Donald Trump’s assassination attempt.
