The underlying facts of the Secret Service protection during the attempted Trump assassination could be viewed as a conspiracy to allow the former president to be assassinated, or, at a minimum, criminal negligence, i.e., a form of recklessness, where a person acts with a disregard for obvious risks to human life and safety. These facts could support Donald Trump Jr.’s statement that the anti-Trumpers want to throw his father in jail “for a thousand years, and/or [give him] the death penalty.” The facts could even ignite thoughts of the “Deep State’s” final action to preserve its form of “democracy.”
The facts include an unconcerned Secret Service that allowed a 20-year-old to walk the grounds with a rangefinder to measure distances 20 minutes before the former president was to speak, climb onto the roof of an unsecured building in broad daylight, and position himself to shoot with an unobstructed view of the former president only 410 feet away. Four minutes before the shooting, citizens were screaming at the Secret Service about the man on the roof with a gun. The Secret Service response was so delayed the shooter fired at least six shots before it acted to kill the gunman. The delay caused the former president to be shot in the ear, another man was killed, and two others suffered bullet wounds. Moreover, the Secret Service failed to warn Trump of the shooter and allowed him to go on stage. The Secret Service’s excuse for failing to secure the tallest building on the site was that it had a “slightly slanted roof” and was concerned an agent might “get hurt.” So, it let the shooter fire away at the former president.
While facts surrounding the attempted assassination of former president Trump on July 13, 2024, establish, at a minimum, criminal negligence, the history of the Secret Service, however, provides solid evidence that it is a real-life version of the Keystone Cops. They were a fictional, humorously grossly incompetent police force always in a chase to protect someone but could not seem even to open a door or drive a car without calamity. These silent movies with hilarious slapstick can still be found on YouTube.
The Secret Service is the 2024 version of the Keystone Cops.
The Secret Service committed so many mistakes that it is impossible to believe a federal agency can be that incompetent; therefore, its actions must be intentional. However, the Secret Service has a history of incompetence beyond what is usually considered morainic even by federal agency standards. Its incompetence is spread across all in need of protection.
During the Obama administration (November 2009), the Secret Service allowed a Washington couple, not on the guest list, to walk off the street into Obama’s first state dinner and shake hands with the president. In November 2011, a man with a semi-automatic rifle parked in front of the building where Obama’s children were inside. He shot at the building, but the Secret Service did nothing, believing a car backfired. It took the Secret Service four days to realize the man fired at the building and broke windows.
In April 2012, Secret Service agents doing presidential advance work in Columbia were arranging for prostitutes to be brought to their hotel where they were guarding the president. In March 2014, in Amsterdam, agents protecting the president passed out drunk in the hallways of the hotel.
In September 2014, a security guard with a gun and assault rifle got on an elevator with the president in Atlanta so he could take a selfie with the president.
Another event in September 2014 involved a man with a knife who jumped the White House fence and ran into the White House through the North Portico doors. He made it into the East Room of the White House before an off-duty Secret Service agent tackled him. The incident occurred because the Secret Service thought the White House security alarm was too noisy and turned it off.
The Secret Service is an agency in need of treatment for adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD”).
ADHD is a mental health disorder that includes a combination of problems illustrated by difficulty in paying attention, hyperactivity, and impulsive behavior. It leads to unstable relationships and poor work performance.
The Secret Service has a budget of $3 billion and a workforce of 8,300. Its main function is to protect 33 people and presidential candidates. It spends less than one-third of its budget on these two main activities: $864 million on protecting persons and facilities and $53 million on security for presidential campaigns.
According to its 2023 Annual Report, two-thirds of its budget is spent on a hodgepodge of activities, including: “making well-informed decisions” on modernizing its vehicle fleet with electric vehicles, “creating a culture of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion;” “leadership training on how best to support LGBTQ + employees;” “fostering a safe and welcoming environment for open and honest discussions” on “important topics,” to staff, not the mission of the agency.
The agency also started a “Rescue Swimmers Program” in 2023, which includes rescuing swimmers in static water, high surf, deep water, and swift water. The course training is extensive, including paddleboarding, snorkeling, and scuba diving.
“The agency hosts workplace training sessions on unconscious bias, with strategies to make more inclusive decisions and create belonging by increasing empathy and understanding one another.”
The Secret Service is “ready to protect candidates in the 2024 presidential election. It even holds training sessions for its agents in emergency medicine and shift formation, motorcade movements, defensive driving, and firearm handling.” These activities are so significant that the Secret Service holds community outreach programs to demonstrate agents’ skills. It also holds events in which it shares “Candy [with the community] on the Ellipse next to the White House.”
It encourages its employees to be creative. It authorized a drone hobbyist to start a drone program to support the agency’s protective mission. The agency just forgot to apply this program to the Trump event. Most recently, however, the agency offered a new course, “Introduction to Phone Repair.” It’s for personnel struggling with phones that are damaged in ways that prevent traditional data collection methods.
Secret Service agents are mere dog toys for Biden’s dog Commander to chew on.
During the Biden administration, the primary role of Secret Service agents in the White House is to be toys for Biden’s dogs. “[A}t least 24 biting incidents took place between October 2022 and July 2023. Agents were bitten on “the wrist, forearm, elbow, waist, chest, thigh, and shoulder.” Commander’s bites occurred at the White House, Camp David, Nantucket, and Delaware.
The Secret Service touts its success by the Numbers.
It held 1,371 recruiting events, engaged 2.5 million individuals in social media, attracted 1.2 million visitors to its website, donated 730 laptops to schools, held 100 meetings with members of Congress, and processed 3,865 Visas for mission-related travel and 2,355 passports. It also seized $257 million in assets, prevented $41 million in pandemic-related losses, and protected 33 persons with only 8,300 employees at a cost of $3 billion, about 242 Secret Service employees to one protected person.
It protected two notable events in 2023: the US-Africa leaders’ summit and a UN general assembly meeting. Seven other main events included the appointment of a new chief operating officer and deputy director, the indictment of six individuals for fraud, and the hosting of a National Computer Forensic Institute “Cyber Games Competition.”
And let’s not forget its major investigation of the cocaine found in the White House.
Cocaine is an illegal substance under federal law. Nevertheless, a bag of cocaine was found in the West Wing work area of the White House. The Secret Service was tasked to investigate. The White House is to be the most secure building in Washington, with cameras everywhere. Every person entering must provide, at a minimum, name, social security number, and date of birth. The Secret Service conducted a comprehensive investigation to determine the source. The results of its investigation could have been announced by Sergeant Schultz, “I know nothing.”
It was also discovered that celebrities attending White House events (rappers, singers, former basketball players, and painters) used illegal substances on the grounds that the Secret Service was guarding.
It’s presently a silly agency with a serious mission that must be restored.
Even in light of the stunning failures of the current director, Kimberly Cheatle, she refuses to resign. Her arrogance is merely a reflection of how diminished the agency has become. The longer she stays, the worse it is for the agency. But she is irrelevant to the real issue, which is the agency needs its meds to treat ADHD. Congress needs to defund all of its screwy woke ideas and activities and transfer those funds to protect our leaders, who need serious people working in a serious manner.
Congress may get satisfaction by grilling Cheatle and illustrating her incompetence to the world, but it’s Congress that structures the agency and appropriates money for its programs. Congress needs to quickly finish with Cheatle and start restructuring the agency to protect the leaders of this nation.
William L. Kovacs, author of Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic. Received 5 stars from Readers’ Favorite. His previous book, Reform the Kakistocracy, received the 2021 Independent Press Award for Political/Social Change. He served as senior vice president for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chief counsel to a congressional committee. He can be contacted at wlk@ReformTheKakistocracy.com
Tags: Trump, Attempted Trump Assassination, White House, Biden, Keystone Cops
