Since the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump on July 13, reporting and public disclosures have continued to underscore the communication failures and negligence that nearly precipitated a national crisis — and got one Butler County firefighter killed. Finally, after weeks of shifting blame to local agencies, the Secret Service has rightly taken the full blame for the incident.
The resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was a necessary consequence of the agency’s appalling incompetence — but it is not sufficient. The agency must make serious reforms, and be transparent about its own self-evaluation, to regain the public’s trust.
The security lapse was ultimately the result of poor communication between the Secret Service and officers from Butler and Beaver counties and the Pennsylvania State Police in the days, hours, minutes and seconds leading up to the shooting. At any of those times, Secret Service action would have foiled the would-be assassin — but the agency failed.
Days: During preparations for the Butler rally, local law enforcement flagged as a security concern the precise building Crooks used as a (very obvious) sniper’s nest. Yet the Secret Service failed to report it.
Hours: On the day of the rally, state and local law enforcement identified the shooter as a suspicious person. Yet the Secret Service failed to take note of him.
Minutes: Before Trump took the stage, both civilian bystanders and law enforcement raised the alarm about a suspicious person on the roof. Yet the Secret Service allowed Trump to speak.
Seconds: Less than a minute before the shooting, a local law enforcement officer made eye contact with the shooter, and frantically attempted to alert the federal agency. Yet the Secret Service did nothing, until shots rang out.
The only reason this outlandish incompetence did not result in a national and international catastrophe is sheer luck — a last second head tilt from the presidential candidate. Corey Comperatore and the two other rally-goers who were seriously injured were not so fortunate. It’s also possible that with a more competent and proactive response, the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, would still be alive today.
While Secret Service acting Director Ronald Rowe, Jr., has been more forthcoming and more accountable than his predecessor, the public still deserves a thorough moment-by-moment accounting of the agency’s failures on that day and leading up to it. The American people also deserve a public assurance that no such lapse will happen again, which means a transparent accounting of the reforms Rowe and the agency’s parent Department of Homeland Security intend to implement. No excuses. No hesitation. No holding back.
The US political system has absorbed a tremendous number of shocks in recent months and years, which have both emerged from and contributed to the most extreme political polarization in over a century. Thus far, the system has proven remarkably resilient.
But a crisis of competence at the security agency that is meant to be the very definition of competence, charged with protecting the world’s most important leaders, could push us over the edge. It almost did. And it must be fixed without delay.
