Strike two

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Evaluating the Secret Service, again.

Questions have been swirling since Sunday when the Secret Service spotted an intruder in the bushes on a Florida golf course allegedly waiting to assassinate former President Donald Trump.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Lawmakers wonder whether the Secret Service is allocating resources correctly, if it has enough personnel… and how much responsibility the Secret Service bears for this second narrowly foiled attack on Donald Trump.

WORLD Radio’s Mary Muncy has the story.

CHERYL TYLER: When you're on duty for the day. You know your particular assignments.

MARY MUNCY: Cheryl Tyler is a former Secret Service Agent who worked on the Clinton and second Bush details. She says when a protectee wants to go anywhere that isn’t planned, the Secret Service might only have ten minutes to prepare.

TYLER: We got to get the cars packed up. You try to get someone to where they're going prior to them getting there and arriving. Does that always happen? No.

One agent might be calling headquarters asking for more personnel, another is calling the place they’re going.

TYLER: From what I understand, the communication came to the supervisor and said that he was gonna go. He wanted to go play golf, and he'd be ready in 10 minutes. Well, when he shows up and stands there at the car, he's ready to go.

She says that’s different than what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania in July. The Trump rally was a preplanned event where the Secret Service had time to set up a perimeter and coordinate contingencies. But this round of golf in Palm Beach, Florida was an “off-the-record movement.” And that takes a lot more vigilance.

TYLER: The biggest challenge the Secret Service has is not having enough personnel.

Tyler believes the Secret Service did their job. The potential assassin didn’t get a shot off and is still alive to answer questions, but she agrees with the agency’s acting director who said the agency needs a “readiness mindset” not a “reactive mindset.”

But others say the agency needs more than a deeper bench.

Melanie Burkholder is a former Secret Service agent who also worked on the Bush detail.

MELANIE BURKHOLDER: I was thinking Reagan was the last time we will see anything like that because we’re too sophisticated, we’re too knowledgeable, there’s too much technology, there’s too much connectivity. And, by golly, we’re seeing it now.

Burkholder says a person’s protection level is supposed to be determined by the threat level. A higher threat level means the perimeter should expand.

BURKHOLDER: However, it seems as though they've also tied that to who is that person. As far as are you a candidate? Are you an elected or are you a former president, who's also a candidate?

She says it’s amazing that the agent spotted the muzzle in the bush, but they should have had drones flying and pushed the perimeter out.

BURKHOLDER: Why was the perimeter where there have been known media to get pictures of the former president golfing there, just 30 yards away from him with this person, this potential assailant, having a rifle that is capable of 300 yards out?

And that perimeter question has made it to the Hill.

JARED MOSKOWITZ: Clearly, just from my vantage point, the perimeters at these events are clearly too small.

Florida Democrat Jared Moskowitz is one of the 13 Congress members tasked with investigating the Butler, Pennsylvania attack.

MOSKOWITZ: They’ve got to expand the perimeters. People are able to get too close to the former president.

WORLD asked these lawmakers if a second assassination attempt changes anything for the ongoing investigation.

MOSKOWITZ: I’ll leave that up to the chairman and the ranking member. I mean, at the end of the day, the whole point is to figure out what’s failing.

Moskowitz says this is an opportunity for the country’s protective forces to get it right going forward—a critical chance to reevaluate their protections.

MOSKOWITZ: It’s tough to always prove a negative, right? It’s like how many school shootings have we stopped? But I think it’s safe to say the last 60 days have not been the brightest moment for the Secret Service.

Laurel Lee is another one of the 13 lawmakers on the investigation task force.

LAUREL LEE: The task force is looking at, in addition to the facts and circumstances of that day, also what we need to be doing at secret service to make sure that they have the strategic operations plan and the resources and people assigned to carry out their duties.

Former Secret Service agents Tyler and Burkholder say finding more recruits won’t be easy. It’s a dangerous and stressful job.

But for now, Burkholder says there needs to be more accountability within the agency.

BURKHOLDER: If I had someone go past my secure area and have harmed one of my protectees, I would have immediately resigned because I would consider myself a failure. I have one job, it's to keep that person safe, and it takes many people to do that, but I would have considered myself a failure.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy. Leo Briceno helped write and report this story.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.