Secret Service under pressure for shooter who got clear shot at Trump (2024)

Now under scrutiny for its worst security breach since the 1981 attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan, the Secret Service is facing pressure to determine whether it failed to devote enough resources to the protection of a former president turned presumptive presidential nominee.

Among the questions agency officials are seeking to answer, according to a senior official, is whether the agency suffered a critical breakdown in communications with local police in Butler, Pa., who were assigned to secure the outer perimeter where the gunman positioned himself on the roof of a nearby building.

President Biden said Sunday that he had directed the Secret Service to review “all security measures” for the Republican National Convention, which takes place this week in Milwaukee, and he said he had ordered an “independent review” of the security at Saturday’s rally.

Lawmakers in both parties are calling on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to account for decisions that may have left key responsibilities to local authorities — and law enforcement officials and experts are expressing shock at what they say is an obvious failure by the agency to plan for a Trump rally in a period of rising national polarization.

“There are many questions and Americans demand answers,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote to Cheatle in a letter asking her to testify later this month.

Joe Hagin, who as a senior White House official in the Trump and George W. Bush administrations worked closely with the Secret Service, called for a top-to-bottom review of how this could happen.

“For the good of all the protectees from the president on down, we need to have a thorough and fair investigation by people who know what they’re talking about,” Hagin said.

The shooting, in which Trump was injured and guided offstage by agents while blood dripped down his face, raises new questions about an agency that is revered for its role in safeguarding the lives of American presidents but has for years endured intense pressure amid staffing shortages and repeated security lapses.

Kevin P. Rojek, the FBI special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office, said it was “surprising” that the gunman was able to open fire on the stage before being killed.

Cheatle, the Secret Service director, sent a memo to her agents on Sunday lauding their fast action to evacuate Trump after shots were fired.

“The attempted assassination of former President Trump in Butler, Pa., is a moment that forever will be remembered in history,” she said in the memo, according to a section that was read to The Washington Post. “The Secret Service moved quickly in this situation and neutralized the threat.”

Responding to questions from The Post, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed Sunday that the agency relied on local police at the Trump rally to fill out significant parts of its typical array of specialized protective units — including its heavily armed counterassault team that provided cover as Trump’s detail evacuated him and the countersniper teams that ultimately spotted and killed the shooter.

It is standard practice for the Secret Service to ask local police to secure the outer perimeter of public events involving the president and senior officials, and the agency frequently seeks to augment its teams for candidates’ events.

But some experts on Sunday questioned whether adding local units — who may not receive the same level of training as Secret Service agents — could create risks given the profile of Trump and the enmity he has engendered among his detractors.

Jason Chaffetz, a former chair of the House Oversight Committee who produced a 2015 investigative report on Secret Service security failures, said he was disturbed that the Secret Service seems once again to have too few resources to do the job and is said to be cutting corners in a campaign season.

“Could there be a bigger threat profile than for President Biden and President Trump? That’s as big as it gets,” Chaffetz said. “They wear these agents out especially during the campaign. Part of what our report shows is they are spread too thin. Now they are apparently relying heavily on local police. With all due respect to local law enforcement, they are just not trained up to do this.”

The Secret Service had two of its counterassault agents on the scene and filled out the rest of the typical platoon with at least six members of Butler County tactical units, Guglielmi said. Two Secret Service countersniper teams were on the scene, but two additional teams that had been recommended for adequate protection at the rally were staffed by local units, he said.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger, who oversees an emergency services team that provided countersniper assistance to the Secret Service, said it is common for counties in western Pennsylvania to lend support across the region for large events, but that a presidential visit is somewhat outside the norm for local authorities.

“Obviously this is not something we have to deal with every day — having a president come to town,” Goldinger said.

Nathan Bible, the district attorney in neighboring Beaver County, said that an emergency services unit in his county was also called in for event security. He said he didn’t know exactly how many participated, but that his team is sizable, numbering more than 40 specialists with expertise including hostage negotiations and drone aviation. He said federal law enforcement provided the bulk of the snipers for the event.

Jonathan Wackrow, former Secret Service detail leader during the Obama administration, said the Secret Service’s most obvious priority was to address the threat of someone gaining access to the roof and a line of sight to Trump, which could have been solved by stationing a local police officer on the rooftop. “This is the number one thing agents stress about,” Wackrow said.

He said the risk of relying on local police is that the Secret Service can be lulled into a feeling that the outer perimeter is taken care of, but the agency doesn’t always clearly communicate and coordinate with its local partners about what they are supposed to do when they see a potential danger. “When you rely on the local law enforcement partners, you better have carefully planned and told them what you expect them to do about a threat,” he said.

It was a local officer who spotted the gunman at a critical moment on Saturday but was unable to stop him, according to Butler County Sheriff Michael T. Slupe.

A municipal officer had hoisted himself up on the roof to check on reports of a suspicious man, Slupe told The Post. But the officer, who was gripping the edge of the roof and so not able to access a gun, had to drop down when the shooter aimed his weapon at him, the sheriff said.

“He lets go because he doesn’t want to get killed,” Slupe said.

The shooter then began firing onto the fairgrounds, the sheriff said.

The municipal police department did not respond to requests for comment. FBI officials told reporters they had no knowledge of local authorities interacting with the shooter before gunfire rang out, though they said they were still gathering evidence.

The shooting highlighted tensions over how the agency has been planning to safeguard major campaign-related events as the election nears — including the Republican National Convention scheduled to take place this week in Milwaukee.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and Michael Lawler (R-N.Y.) announced Sunday they are introducing a bill that would give enhanced protection to the three leading candidates: Trump, President Biden and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Last night’s attempted assassination of former President Trump was a dark moment in our nation’s history. As reports continue to emerge, it’s clear that more protection is needed for all major candidates for president. That’s why we’re planning on introducing bipartisan legislation providing President Joe Biden, former president Donald Trump, and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. with enhanced Secret Service protection. Anything less would be a disservice to our democracy,” the representatives said in a joint statement.

A senior Republican involved in Trump’s election effort said there had been months of disagreements with the Secret Service over the convention, with Trump’s team believing the Secret Service did not take the threats of violent protests and demonstrations seriously enough. Several of the calls had grown acrimonious. This person said that the two sides had grown to distrust one another — and “there will be a demand for answers on how a gunman could get on a roof that close to Trump and have a clear shot at him.”

The Secret Service pushed back Sunday on claims made by some Republicans after the shooting that Trump or his security detail asked for more security and was denied it. A spokesman for the agency said that extra agents were added to the security details of Trump, Biden and Vice President Harris as the frequency of their campaigns increased in the past two months or so.

“The assertion that a member of the former president’s security team requested additional security resources that the U.S. Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false,” Guglielmi said. “In fact, recently the U.S. Secret Service added protective resources and capabilities to the former president’s security detail.”

Guglielmi continued: “The former president, and the current president, are commonly subject to threats. The U.S. Secret Service takes threats seriously, and it takes actions based on those threats as warranted. The U.S. Secret Service is constantly evaluating the very dynamic threat environment and responding to it in the fulfillment of its responsibilities.”

Secret Service agents, both current and retired, told The Post that they are in shock at how badly Trump’s outer rings of security appeared to fail. They note that the inner perimeter of Trump’s security, the agents in his immediate detail, performed rapidly once shots rang out and evacuated Trump to safety upon confirming the shooter had been killed and was no longer a threat.

“How the f--- did he get a gun that close,” one former Secret Service officer opined in exchanges with colleagues yesterday reviewed by The Post. The response he received from a fellow agent was “resources.”

Some watching videos of the shooting pointed to the outer ring of security as the gaping flaw. A well-respected countersniper agent ultimately killed the suspected shooter within seconds of him firing.

“This is bad. Just terrible,” said one former senior leader of Secret Service presidential protection, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the agency. “When the incident occurred I was baffled when I heard the distance of the shot … How could that happen?”

Speaking Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI, said that “one of the most basic elements” of securing a site is to eliminate sight lines to the place where a protected person will be speaking. Looking at Saturday’s shooting, he said that buildings just outside of the traditional perimeter of an event should have been noted as within shooting range. Law enforcement typically either puts people around or on top of such buildings or places obstacles between them and where a protected person is standing, he added. “So I think preliminarily there are going to be a lot of questions about why those steps weren’t taken here,” McCabe said. He noted that it’s important not to jump to conclusions but said there are “many questions to be answered in light of what we now know.”

Aaron Schaffer and Brittany Shammas contributed to this report.