The failures of the US Secret Service nearly got President Donald J Trump killed. It was only by the Grace of God that Trump turned his head to just the right angle that the bullet meant to kill him just grazed the side of his head. The failures that day at Butler, PA, were nearly catastrophic.
Later, we learned the Secret Service protective detail for Trump was grossly under staffed and incompetent. We learned many of those assigned to protect Trump that day were not Secret Service protective agents but rather agents from the Department of Homeland Security that had effectively no training as protective agents. The failures were so egregious many now think they were intentional.
Then yesterday, 9/5/224, when listening to the Dan Bongino radio show, I heard more. Dan, in case you do not know, was a Secret Service agent for more than a decade and was even an instructor at the Secret Service Training Academy in Beltsville, MD.. He spent several years assigned to the Presidential Protection Division. SS whistle blowers have the ear of Bongino.
Bongino reported that the day before yesterday the Republican nominee for Vice President, J.D. Vance, had an event where, properly staffed by the Secret Service, there were 35 posts to be manned. The whistle blower reported in fact there were only 4 Secret Service agents there with the remaining 31 posts manned by untrained Department of Homeland Security agents. Yet another scenario asking for disaster. Intentional? Who knows?
Bongino is highly critical of particularly the upper echelon of Secret Service management. He says the agency has been under staffed for a decade or more. He says even if corrective action is taken and new agents hired, it would take up to 2 years to get correction accomplished given the training required. All of this falls under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas who has proven to either be totally incompetent or intentionally so. Just look at what has been going on at the southern border under the leadership of Mayorkas.
There are those who want Trump dead. There are those who want Vance dead. The real question is who is responsible for keeping both protected from harm. Are they doing their job or are they intentionally lax? That question needs an answer.
Many of us want Eric Prince, former Navy Seal and founder of Blackwater, a private security firm, years ago to come back. In testimony before the US Congress, Prince said at one point he had 3500 employees that over years provided tens of thousands of protective assignments around the world without one protectee loss or harm. From 1997 to 2010, Blackwater was awarded $2 billion in government security contracts for both unclassified services and classified ones. Clearly the Secret Service could learn from Blackwater experience and from Eric Prince.
Now, given the state of the US Secret Service, about all we as citizens can do is pray for the safety of all political office holders and candidates. Do.