Congress Sends More Help, But Security Concerns Persist After Trump Assassination Attempts

WASHINGTON – Congress passed two bills before taking an election break that are intended to improve protections around the presidential candidates as security concerns and political tensions persist following two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump.

One measure, the Enhanced Presidential Security Act, requires the United States Secret Service to provide the same level of security for presidential and vice presidential candidates from major parties that is provided for the incumbent president and vice president. President Joe Biden signed that bill into law Oct. 1.

Congress also allotted an additional $231 million to the Secret Service in the short-term government funding extension that  Biden signed into law Sept. 26.

Barry Donadio, of Kent Island, Maryland, stands in front of the North Portico of the White House in his Secret Service gear on Oct. 31, 2009. He served as an agent for nearly eight years during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. (Photo courtesy of Barry Donadio)

“I don’t want Kamala Harris and I don’t want Donald Trump to have any less protection than the sitting president of the United States – we’re just at that level now,” Barry Donadio, who served nearly eight years as a Secret Service agent under the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, told Capital News Service. “Right now in the United States the political turmoil, the danger and recent attempts on one candidate, we had to go to that level.”

Donadio has served in security roles from local law enforcement to protection for former President Bill Clinton and Air Force One with the 106th Rescue Wing Security Police at the Francis S. Gabreski Air National Guard Base at Westhampton Beach, New York. The Kent Island, Maryland, resident owns a private investigation and security firm, is the sergeant at arms of the Maryland Republican Party and served as an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention.

Boosting security to presidential levels for Harris and Trump “is an enormous expense for the Secret Service, to government, to taxpayers and an enormous drain to an already depleted Secret Service that, since the year 1865, has not had enough manpower to really do all they do,” Donadio said, referring to the year the Secret Service was established, shortly after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. “They’ve never sat comfortably and said, ‘Well, we have so many people, why don’t you take Sunday off?’’’

Amid recent backlash against the Secret Service, the creation of a House task force investigating the attempted assassination of Trump in July and the resignation of former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, Donadio said the agency should be recognized for its response to criticisms rather than attacked.

“I’m the odd ball out of, I guess, the entire world,” the former agent said. “There’s attempts, no matter who or what you are, that are going to happen.”

Rather than placing blame on the Secret Service, the public should recognize the bravery and dedication to duty by the agents during the assassination attempts on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, and at the former president’s West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course, Donadio said.

“The Secret Service, at least in my time and as far back as I know, has always been understaffed,” he said. “They are so specialized in what they do. You’ve heard them testify to this in court: it takes years to make a Secret Service agent.”

Donadio’s claim is mirrored by a 2015 report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee titled “United States Secret Service: An Agency In Crisis.”

The 438-page report found “a workforce on the verge of collapsing due to understaffing and pending attrition” and cited “the exhaustive nature of the job, constant overtime, and lack of respect from Presidential Protective Division leadership as major factors in (Uniformed Division) attrition.”

At a Sept. 26 hearing of the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump, lawmakers expressed alarm at communication and planning failures by the Secret Service in Butler.

“Because of failures by the Secret Service, the shooting was not prevented,” said Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pennsylvania, and chairman of the task force. “Just last week, Acting Director (Ronald) Rowe said his own agency showed ‘complacency.’ The day of the assassination attempt, (Thomas Matthew) Crooks scouted and identified weaknesses in the Secret Service’s security plan using both a drone and range finder. Had security vulnerabilities not existed, it is entirely plausible he might not have even attempted the shooting and returned home.”

Cheatle resigned on July 23, just 10 days after the first Trump assassination attempt, following blistering criticism from lawmakers including Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, the chairman of the House oversight panel, and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee.

In addition to accepting responsibility on behalf of his own agency, Rowe placed blame on local law enforcement in Butler for the Trump shooting.

“We were told that building was going to be covered,” Rowe said at a joint hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs and Judiciary Committees on July 30. “There had been a face-to-face that afternoon.”

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, called the Secret Service’s failures in Pennsylvania “inexcusable.”

A follow-up Sept. 25 bipartisan report by the Senate homeland security panel said that the Secret Service failed to clearly outline planning and security responsibilities for the Butler rally, did not coordinate effectively with state and local police agencies, and failed to provide enough security resources for the event, among other shortcomings.

“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,” Peters said in a statement.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the ranking Republican on the committee, said in a statement: “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.”

By JAMES MATHESON
Capital News Service