An independent review commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security claims that “without reform,” the United States Secret Service will not be able to prevent future assassination plots like the July attempt on former President Donald Trump‘s life.
The review, published Thursday by an independent board consisting of Janet Napolitano, Bush administration homeland adviser Frances Townsend, law enforcement veteran David Mitchell, and former deputy attorney general Mark Filip, outlined a number of lapses by the Secret Service leading to the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“The Secret Service does not perform at the elite levels needed to discharge its critical mission,” the letter addressed to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, which was included in the report. “The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved.”
The panel specifically accused Secret Service officials of fostering and showing a “lack of critical thinking” by agents “before, during, and after” the attempted assassination.
Furthermore, the panel found that the Secret Service has done “little in the way of self-reflection in terms of identifying areas of missteps, omissions, or opportunities for improvement.
Ultimately, the report argued that “without reform” to the “corrosive cultural attitudes” within the agency, another assassination attempt on Trump or another protectee “can and will happen again.”
“The service has become insular and stale,” Napolitano said in a Thursday interview with The New York Times. “It is time for the service to kind of break out and to reach out beyond its own agency to bring in talent that can really take a fresh look at what it is they do, and how they do it.”
The Trump campaign has been lobbying USSS for increased protection for Trump since July. Campaign manager Susie Wiles recently requested military vehicles and aircraft for the remainder of Trump’s 2024 campaign travel.
In response, President Joe Biden told reporters that he had directed DHS to field any of the Trump campaign’s security requests, barring the use of F-15s.
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Secret Service acting Director Ronald L. Rowe said he would carefully examine the recommendations, but noted improvements are underway, including developing a plan for a “fundamental transformation” and working with Congress on increasing the agency’s budget.
“We are not waiting to act,” Rowe said in a statement. “We have already significantly improved our readiness, operational and organizational communications and implemented enhanced protective operations for the former president and other protectees. This includes making changes to better integrate with our state and local law enforcement partners and augmenting our protection with support from the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies.”