Donald Trump Shooting: How Could This Happen? By James Bruno
I served in a Secret Service protective detail once — during Bill Clinton’s state visit to Vietnam. The detail chief recruited me into his detail well before the visit because I spoke Vietnamese and knew the lay of the land. I was also physically fit. I was a Foreign Service officer, not a security professional, though I’d served for years in high threat environments and scored high on shooting tests. But he made me a full (unarmed) member of the detail; agents instructed me, for example, in how to participate in shielding and evacuating the president. I was never more than a few feet from President Clinton for about 12 hours straight. I even had to request bathroom breaks well in advance.
I learned a lot from that assignment. Our Secret Service is truly outstanding and I gained a lot of respect for its special agents. During down times, they shared stories and insights. I can hardly begin to describe the measures they take to meticulously research and “sanitize” an area, right down to visiting individuals on record who might pose a threat and ordering them not to leave their home on the day of a presidential visit. Their work is highly demanding and grueling.
The one thing that stands out for me in the current case is how is it that the building the shooter was on wasn’t covered at least by a local cop? The USSS normally puts people into and on buildings within line of sight of the protectee. This building was not so covered.
As we all could see, special agents and the tactical team acted very quickly and effectively in 1) taking down the shooter; and 2) shielding Trump and evacuating him.
This incident is the most serious attempt on a president’s life since that on Reagan in 1981. We all need to await the outcome of the investigation; that report will shed light on any shortcomings.
A Troubled Agency
But the Secret Service is a troubled agency. It hates scrutiny, yet has brought it on itself by a series of scandals in recent years. The Washington Post reports:
“In 2008, eight years after Black agents sued the agency for race discrimination, the discovery process — long delayed by Secret Service foot-dragging — turned up a trove of emails in which senior agency officials swapped racist jokes, along with multiple instances of high-level officials downloading and sharing pornographic images. In 2012, eight agents were forced out of the Secret Service after hiring prostitutes during a night of drunken debauchery in Cartagena, Colombia; later that year, another agent killed himself when an internal investigation revealed multiple security lapses, including unreported overseas trips and affairs with foreign nationals. In 2014 and 2015, agents made headlines for drunken driving, including an episode in which two senior agents smashed their car into a White House security barrier after an alcohol-soaked retirement party for a colleague.”
In her exhaustively researched 2021 book, Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carol Leonnig writes:
“This long-revered agency was not living up to its most solemn duty — to keep the president safe. Agents and officers gave me a guided tour, showing me step by step how the Secret Service was becoming a paper tiger, weakened by arrogant, insular leadership, promotions based on loyalty rather than capability, years of slim budgets, and outdated technology.
Many agents have expressed concerns to me about the agency’s ability to guard the presidents, their families, and other key government officials. They describe an organization stretched too thin, drowning in new missions and fraught with security risks brought on by a fundamental mistrust between rank-and-file agents and leadership.”
The attempt on Donald Trump’s life is again bringing the spotlight intensely on the Secret Service, which I assume is in a state of internal crisis right now. Is it up to its critical task of protecting the president and other key officials and their families? What are its weaknesses? What reforms are needed? How shall they be implemented? In my view, Congress needs to establish a nonpartisan commission to delve into these questions and come up with answers and recommendations. The stakes could hardly be higher.
James Bruno (@JamesLBruno) served as a diplomat with the U.S. State Department for 23 years and is currently a member of the Diplomatic Readiness Reserve. An author and journalist, Bruno has been featured on CNN, NBC’s Today Show, Fox News, Sirius XM Radio, The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, and other national and international media.
