As an American of a certain age, I remember too many political assassinations and attempted assassinations that have happened here. President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Governor George Wallace,  Jr., President Ronald Reagan, President Gerald Ford, and former-President Donald Trump. While there were questions in each of those cases about how the assassin or would-be assassin managed to get so close to their intended target, never before has the Secret Service come under as much scrutiny or deserved as much ridicule as it does in the wake of the attempts on Trump’s life.

During the bipartisan Senate hearings looking into the July 13, 2024 attempt on Trump’s life, the failure of the Secret Service that day came into glaring focus. From the report that came out of those hearings:

From planning missteps, to the siloed and flawed communication to the lack of effective coordination between law enforcement, to the breakdowns in technology, the Secret Service’s failures that allowed an assassination attempt on former President Trump at his July 13 rally were shocking, unacceptable, and preventable – and they led to tragic consequences,” said Chairman Peters. “Moving forward, our bipartisan interim report makes recommendations for needed reforms to address these serious failures, provide accountability and transparency for the American people, and ensure that the Secret Service has the tools and resources they need to prevent another disaster like this from happening.”

“Our initial findings clearly show a series of multiple failures of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and an inexcusable dereliction of duty,” said Ranking Member Paul. “Not only did USSS fail to ensure the AGR roof was adequately covered, they were also aware of a suspicious individual with a rangefinder for at least 27 minutes and did not delay proceedings or remove former President Trump from the stage, even after being informed that the suspicious individual was on the roof of the AGR building. Someone needs to be held accountable for these egregious failures by the USSS, and despite USSS, DHS, FBI, ATF, and other federal agencies’ continued obstruction of our bipartisan investigation, I will continue to push for answers and accountability.”

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) noted “it was not a single mistake that allowed Crooks to outmaneuver one of our country’s most elite group of security professionals. There were security failures on multiple fronts.” In layman terms, the Keystone cops were in charge that day and we are lucky it didn’t result in more loss of life and more injuries than it did.

But it gets worse. According to Homeland Security Committee Chairman Sen. Gary Peters, there was a lot of “finger-pointing” by different agents when they were asked who was in charge that day. “We could not find one point of contact who said, ‘This was the person in charge'”. Hmm, sound familiar? Sort of reminds me of the response by various members of law enforcement after the school shooting in Uvalde. Am I the only one thinking about the old Abbott & Costello “Who’s on first?” routine right now?

Worse, “key resource requests” were either denied or never made by the Secret Service for that day’s event. One of those failures was the failure to request a surveillance team. For whatever reason, someone somewhere in the chain of command decided they didn’t need the additional help in securing Trump’s safety while in the midst of an estimated 15,000 people. In contrast, First Lady Jill Biden was attending an event approximately an hour away from the rally with a whopping 410 people present and she had a Secret Service surveillance team. Gee, makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

But that isn’t the end of the debacle that has been the Secret Service’s missteps recently. There’s the case this month of the would-be assassin who laid in wait outside the golf course in Florida for twelve hours or more. In the time since then, we’ve learned the Secret Service did not sweep the golf course before Trump started his round. The only explanation we’ve heard, at least the only one I’ve seen anywhere, is that this wasn’t scheduled. Perhaps that was the agency’s way of saying it didn’t have the chance to sweep the course beforehand. However, when it is common knowledge that Trump often plays a round of golf on Sundays at one of his Florida courses, wouldn’t it behoove them to check the courses just in case?

When I think of the agents who raced to protect JFK and the others in the car with him that November day in 1963. . .

Or the shooting of Secret Service Agent Tim McCarthy who took a bullet protecting President Reagan when John Hinkley attempted to assassinate him. . .

I wonder what is happening now. How much of the problem with the Secret Service is systemic? How much is because it is getting pressure from someone with enough power to keep their coverage of Trump below what you and I might expect to be normal? How much is Trump himself not wanting to be told what to do and when he can do it? Now matter what the answer, I find it hard not to worry when looking at video of the July attempt on Trump’s life. . .

Or when reading about how the attempt might have been stopped before the shooter made his way into position if someone, anyone had taken charge and acted when it first came to their knowledge someone was walking around the fairgrounds with a rangefinder. Or how about when folks started saying there was someone ON TOP OF the building with what was basically a clean line of site to where Trump would be taking the stage?

No matter who was in charge at the scene, no matter who made the call not to have a surveillance team, the ball was dropped more than once. Worse, it’s happened in at least one more instance. That doens’t just look bad on the Secret Service, it looks bad on all of us. There are people out there asking if the powers-that-be want Trump to be assassinated. There’s another faction saying he’s set all these scenarios up to draw the sympathy vote as well as the votes of thsoe ready to claim conspiracy to keep him out of office. It doesn’t matter. What matters is it is noise we don’t need this close to the election. What matters is we, as Americans, need to believe the Secret Service is capable of protecting our senior elected officials.

How many people realize that Trump was urged to change his rally this weekend from being outdoors to indoors? On its surface, that seems like it might be a reasonable thing in light of recent events, right? Except there’s more to it than that. The Secret Service doesn’t have the additional personnel to add to his protective detail for the rally because. . .wait for it. . .the UN General Assembly is meeting and “the Secret Service is responsible for the safety and security of over 140 world leaders amid a challenged global threat level.”

What is really sad is that Rich Lowry is right. “Given the contents of the Senate report, it’s not shocking that the Secret Service allowed another would-be assassin to get close to Trump just two months later. An agency that should fade into the background because the quality of its work can always be taken for granted is instead a national embarrassment.”

Featured Image: Secret Service Star Logo, Public domain from a copyright standpoint, but other restrictions apply.