Secret Service Stumbles Again

Secret Service stumbles

Two assassination attempts in less than nine weeks point to both the heated political rhetoric and the deep divide that are the hallmarks of American politics today.  As this column pointed out recently, both main political parties in the United States need to tone down the rhetoric or reap the consequences.

The assassination of a Presidential candidate of either party in the final stretch of the campaign could fracture the country in ways that might require a generation to heal.

That same column quoted civil war expert Dr. Barbara F. Walter as saying that America is in a “violent incipient stage” that could be a sign of impending civil war. While she argues that the United States is not necessarily headed toward civil war, Dr. Walter posits that the country has witnessed an erosion of democracy in the past eight years. Pointedly, her remarks were made prior to Sunday’s attempt on former President Donald J. Trump’s life.

Trump and others were quick to praise the Secret Service for its role in preventing an attack, unlike its security blunders during the July 13 attempt to assassinate the former President in Butler, Pennsylvania. This column condemned the Secret Service as “rotten” and called for it to be stripped of its protective mission. Nothing that occurred on September 15 has changed my mind. Yes, a Secret Service agent or agents scouting the golf course one hole ahead of where the former President and one of his donors were playing saw a rifle barrel jutting from the tree line and opened fire.

The alleged would-be sniper fled the scene, reportedly leaving behind a scoped SKS-type rifle with an obliterated serial number (possession of which is a federal offense), a GoPro camera, food, and two backpacks containing ceramic plates, likely meant to serve as home-made body armor.

If left to the Secret Service, the suspect easily may have escaped custody. The agent or agents were reported to have fired between four and six shots—all of which missed their target—and the alleged gunman fled to his vehicle and left the scene. If not for a quick-thinking witness who saw a suspicious individual and thought to snap a photo of the vehicle’s license plate as the man drove away, law enforcement officials would not have known what to look for. Had the alleged would-be assassin been a little savvier, he might have had another vehicle parked nearby, enabling a clean getaway.

To recap, the Secret Service noticed a rifle barrel in the bushes (good), opened fire on a suspect but failed to hit or stop him (bad), and subsequently let the suspect flee the scene (also bad).

Fortunately, local law enforcement acted quickly to circulate a description of the vehicle along with its license plate number, and Martin County Sheriff’s Deputies successfully took the suspect into custody without incident some 45 minutes north of the incident scene.

Major questions remain to be answered: how did the Secret Service allow an individual to penetrate the protective perimeter (and apparently remain on site for approximately 12 hours); how did a trained agent discharge his or her weapon four to six times without striking the suspect; and how did the Secret Service allow the suspect to escape the golf course? A more troubling aspect to consider is that only a very finite audience had knowledge of the former President’s movements that day: his golf outing allegedly was not on any printed agenda. Who had knowledge of Trump’s movements that day, and how did the alleged gunman know where and when to set up? According to media reports, the suspect is not cooperating with law enforcement and is not talking.

The Secret Service needs a complete overhaul. Kudos to Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe for traveling to the scene of the incident on Sunday and announcing his intention to remain in Florida as the investigation progresses, but he may be presiding over an agency that is no longer able to fulfill its mission.

Captain Scott Rye, USN (Ret.), is a former correspondent for Daily Shipping Guide, the former long-time editor of Alabama Seaport magazine, and the author of Of Men & Ships: The Best Sea Tales and Men & Ships of the Civil War.