A government agency rarely gets caught red-handed in a lie. Most government officials are smart enough to bend the truth without exposing themselves to accusations they lied.
On Saturday, after strenuously denying they had ever turned down any requests for additional security from the Trump campaign, the Secret Service admitted they had, in fact, short-changed the security of the ex-president on several occasions.
The decision not to add Secret Service protection for the former president came from the "highest levels of the agency," according to CNN.
In the hours after the assassination attempt on July 13, questions were raised by several congressmen, including Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, about reports that the Secret Service had refused to give more security when asked by the Trump campaign.
I have very reliable sources telling me there have been repeated requests for stronger secret service protection for President Trump.
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) July 14, 2024
Denied by Secretary Mayorkas. https://t.co/RazOVcJgCk
Rep. Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, also mentioned the denied requests for extra security in a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on July 14.
“That is an unequivocally false assertion,” said Secretary Mayorkas on ABC on July 14.
“There’s an untrue assertion that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed. This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, wrote in an X post on Jul 14.
"Fact-checkers" were in full finger-wagging mode, claiming the reports were "False."
What are they saying today?
Top officials at the U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied requests for additional resources and personnel sought by Donald Trump’s security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday, according to four people familiar with the requests.
Agents charged with protecting the former president requested magnetometers and more agents to screen attendees at sporting events and other large public gatherings Trump attended, as well as additional snipers and specialty teams at other outdoor events, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive security discussions. The requests, which have not been previously reported, were sometimes denied by senior officials at the agency, who cited various reasons, including a lack of resources at an agency that has long struggled with staffing shortages, they said.
Those rejections — in response to requests that were several times made in writing — led to long-standing tensions that pitted Trump, his top aides and his security detail against Secret Service leadership, as Trump advisers privately fretted that the vaunted security agency was not doing enough to protect the former president.
If you can believe it, it gets worse.
Embattled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle angered Trump campaign security when she repeatedly denied that there had been any shorting of security for the former president during a meeting with the campaign on Monday.
Guglielmi, who had strenuously denied that any security requests had been turned down, said the agency had learned "new information indicating the agency’s headquarters may have in fact denied some requests for additional security from Trump’s detail and was reviewing documentation to understand the specific interactions better," according to the Washington Post article.
He's still lying.
“The Secret Service has a vast, challenging, and intricate mission,” he said in a statement. “Every day we work in a dynamic threat environment to ensure our protectees are safe and secure across multiple events, travel, and other difficult environments. We execute a comprehensive and layered strategy to balance personnel, technology, and specialized operational needs."
My one-word response: Balderdash.
Cheatle, Mayorkas, and a gaggle of bureaucrats who were responsible for this security breakdown will appear before several committees of Congress this week, where they will give testimony about why they shorted the Trump campaign security in one of the most active threat atmospheres in the agency's history.
Let's admit the Secret Service needs more money, more agents, more resources — more of everything. But it starts with leadership. The men and women in the Secret Service protection details are willing to take a bullet for the person they are protecting.
But Director Cheatle and Secretary Mayorkas flinch at the very thought of answering questions about their decisions. We are going to see Cheatle and Mayorkas this week, bobbing and weaving, trying to save their own sorry a**es after the most comprehensive failure in presidential security since 1981. It sickens me that a once great agency should have been taken so low by such incompetent swine as Cheatle and Mayorkas.
It should make anyone who cares about America and excellence weep.
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