Secret Service in Crisis

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Less than 48 hours after Trump narrowly avoided an assassination attempt, the Secret Service is facing its biggest crisis in decades. Lawmakers are demanding answers from the insular agency about its security decisions and failures, which allowed 20-year-old Thomas Crooks to crawl onto a roof and fire seven rounds at Trump and into the crowd before a Secret Service counter sniper returned fire, killing Crooks.

Inflexible Secret Service protocols, overworked special agents, and a decision against deploying more counter snipers to President Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania all contributed to creating the opening for a gunman to wound Trump, kill a bystander, and seriously injure two others, according to several sources in the Secret Service community.

Elon Musk called for the resignation of the head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. He criticized the Secret Service for what he perceived as incompetence or deliberate action in allowing the shooter to get close to Trump.

This article at Real Clear Politics discusses the security lapse by the Secret Service that allowed a gunman, Thomas Crooks, to fire upon former President Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania, resulting in the death of a bystander and injuries to others.

The incident has raised questions about the agency’s protocols, resource allocation, and leadership. Several factors are highlighted as contributing to the security failure, including the agency’s reliance on supplemental agents due to overworked regular staff, the proximity of other high-profile events that may have diverted resources, and the inexperience of the site agent in charge of security arrangements.

The Secret Service’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies have also come under scrutiny, with some critics suggesting that these may have influenced the agency’s operational decisions. The incident has led to calls for the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and increased congressional oversight.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate on Sunday vowed to investigate any and all agency lapses that created the opportunity for such a close call on the former president’s life and the death of an innocent rally attendee, demanding testimony and documents from the Secret Service as agency officials remained silent on any potential failures.

Looks like they’re reevaluating the situation!

The Department of Homeland Security is in charge of the Secret Service. The head of the DHS is not only guilty of dereliction of duty with respect to the southern border, but he is ultimately responsible for failing to provide adequate security for President Trump.