An independent panel called on Thursday for a sweeping shake-up of the US Secret Service following its “historic” failure to prevent the July assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.
“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static,” the four members of the bipartisan review panel said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that accompanied their 52-page report.
“The Secret Service as an agency requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission,” they said, and without reforms another assassination attempt such as the one that took place in Butler, Pennsylvania “can and will happen again.”
Trump was grazed on his right ear when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop while the Republican presidential candidate was holding a campaign rally in Butler on July 13.
One person in the audience was killed and the gunman, Thomas Crooks, was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
Much of the report was devoted to identifying the specific security failures that allowed the assassination attempt at the Butler rally, many of which have already been publicly acknowledged by the Secret Service.
“July 13 represents a historic security failure by the Secret Service,” the report said, and showed a “troubling lack of critical thinking” by Secret Service personnel involved in security planning and execution.
“Many of the Secret Service personnel involved in the events of July 13 appear to have done little in the way of self reflection in terms of identifying areas of missteps, omissions, or opportunities for improvement,” it added.
The review panel said a new leadership team with “significant experience outside the Secret Service” was needed in the wake of the assassination attempt.
“The events of Butler suggest that there is an urgent need for fresh thinking informed by external experience and perspective,” the report said.
It recommended that the Secret Service abandon its responsibility for investigating financial crimes and re-focus solely on its core mission of providing protection to high-profile current and former government officials.
– Communications ‘chaotic’ –
Among the specific security breakdowns cited in the report was a failure to secure the building where the gunman opened fire and communications issues between the Secret Service and local law enforcement which resulted in a “chaotic mixture of radio, cell phone, text, and email being employed by different personnel at different points.”
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned following the assassination attempt and was replaced by acting director Ronald Rowe.
Rowe said the Secret Service will “carefully examine the report and recommendations.”
“However, we are not waiting to act,” he 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.”
The review panel did not address a thwarted assassination attempt on Trump that took place at one of his golf courses in Florida in September.
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