I spent a couple of years in my career with Broaddus Defense, a private company that helps clients prevent and prepare to respond to violent attacks. The Secret Service fumbled the response to the attempted assassination of President Trump yesterday, and every member of the assigned team and their superiors should be taken in front of a Senate committee and grilled during a session that is carried live by every single media platform. This event and the Secret Service's response is why we drill.
First, let's address the fact that people saw a man with a gun on a rooftop, and there seemed to be no immediate action taken by the Secret Service or law enforcement.
Witness tells BBC he saw gunman on top of a building located just outside Trump rally
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) July 14, 2024
Follow updates https://t.co/QvX8HL6tJf pic.twitter.com/nEEMhEF9m7
The obvious question is why the rooftop wasn't secured in the first place. Secret Service agents sweep every rooftop, building, crawlspace, and crevice multiple times before an event. A former agent I know swept a house in Los Angeles ahead of a presidential candidate fundraiser, and he and his partner went through every drawer, shelf, curtain, closet, terrace, and hedge because that is their protocol.
A procedure should also be in place for communicating a newly discovered threat. As soon as someone identifies a threat, agents should relay the report immediately through a clear communication chain.
- Before the event and during setup, a grid should have been overlaid on a map of the immediate area that would assign each building and structure an identifying code.
- When the report came through, the reporting agent should have named the location and degree of the threat (ranging from "unattended package" to "person with a gun").
- Agents nearest the location should have responded decisively and rapidly to investigate and, if necessary, neutralize the threat.
None of that seemed to have happened.
Full video clip with audio of the assas*nation attempt against Trump.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 14, 2024
Shots ring out.
Trump hits the ground with a wound to his ear.
Trump tells Secret Service he is not leaving the stage without his shoes.
Trump refuses to leave the stage until he pumps his fists and shouts… pic.twitter.com/pEOK4XFOgq
Next, let's talk about the dogpile of humanity that falls on top of President Trump. Multiple shots and five seconds before three agents smothered Trump. Their immediate next action should have been to force President Trump off the stage, even if they had to physically lift and carry him. Instead, fifty-five seconds from the first order to "move" pass before President Trump is moved from the target area.
The agents allow Trump to tell them what to do, which mitigates the agents' sole purpose for employment: keeping the president safe. Twice, Trump stops the agents to retrieve his shoes, which should have been picked up by an agent and carried or left behind. He also tells the agents to wait so he can tell the attendees to "fight" while pumping his fist. This is President Trump's nature, which is why so many people choose him as their champion, but the man's head was exposed for six seconds.
This is in no way President Trump's problem because the Secret Service is supposed to overcome whatever it is to keep that man free from bodily harm.
Moving on to the eight-agent shuffle to get President Trump into a vehicle.
Sometimes , one 30-sec video tells you everything.
— L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) July 14, 2024
They look chaotic, unfit and hapless.
They look like they're cosplaying as Secret Service agents.pic.twitter.com/nc8wvOkzqF
Once again, this movement takes far too long and is incredibly clumsy. I count eight agents, but if you see a different number, let me know in the comments. This time, they only permit Trump's head three seconds of exposure, but that's three seconds too long.
These drills should be conducted with every combination of agents, using one of their own as the "package" or the person they are protecting. During the drills, the person playing the package should act in a variety of ways: hostile and combative, cooperative, critically injured, lifeless, superficially wounded, in shock, and so on. This should be accomplished so the agents can simulate multiple situations and respond together as a unit.
It took twenty seconds for the vehicle to exit the area. Twenty seconds after the obligatory hand-slap of the door indicating the package is sealed inside is a long time because, until that vehicle joins the caravan of identical vehicles, everyone knows where the package is. All it would take is a paintball to mark the vehicle, and then the package must be shuffled again.
You'll also notice three female agents on the perimeter of the scrum; they are supposed to be focused outward for two reasons: crowd control and threat detection. From the video above, it's obvious they are diverting their outward focus to whatever it is that's happening behind them, and I cannot say with any confidence that the perimeter of that scrum is secure.
This is not a commentary on Donald Trump's behavior. His attitude, mannerisms, and behaviors are baked into the cake—everyone knows what they're going to get. This is not even a commentary on the presence of female agents. This shameful performance is a direct reflection on the Secret Service as an agency that sent very green agents with minimal training to protect one of the most polarizing figures in modern American politics.
The supervisor who designated and approved this team needs to be fired. The trainer who signed the agents' documents stating they performed at a satisfactory level needs to be suspended while every other agent with that signature on his or her documentation is investigated and re-examined. The training standards needed to qualify for presidential protection details need to be re-evaluated.
And, for the love of all that's good in this world, hiring based on checkboxes has got to stop. Having a 30% female Secret Service is great only if and when those women can perform at the exact standard men are held to. My own beloved Marine Corps is guilty of lowering performance standards to allow more women to qualify.
Back to the concept of drilling. Drills are conducted to create muscle memory so that when a body is in an actual emergency, instinct kicks in, and the body knows what to do before the mind can catch up or get in the way. When you look at biochemistry during an emergency, blood—and the oxygen it's carrying—goes to the brain and the core, away from the hands and feet. This explains how a mother who has unbuckled a strap on her child's stroller a thousand times struggles to do so when an active shooter is nearby. It's what I learned to identify as "Mickey Mouse hands"— fingers feel too big and bulky to be dextrous because they lack adequate blood flow.
We also drill to desensitize the body's reaction to adrenaline. The more times you ride a roller coaster, the less fun it becomes because you know what to expect and how your body will be treated on the ride; ride it enough times, and you can be bored with something that was once a thrill. Blue Angels put themselves through G-force to condition themselves for peak performance during unnatural and extreme stress.
You don't have to be a Secret Service agent or Blue Angel pilot to see the value in training; look at fire drills. We know where to go and how to act in the event of a fire emergency because we drill, or we should. Kids today have active shooter drills down pat in school to the point that the older ones no longer take them seriously, which is another commentary for another day. Americans deserve an elite force in the Secret Service regardless of party. Today's Secret Service has proven it is certainly not that.
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