The maelstrom surrounding President Joe Biden‘s cataclysmic debate performance last week continues. The White House and first family are embarrassing themselves and worsening Biden’s situation by deflecting blame.
Still, the president and his family can at least be grateful for one thing: the code of secrecy that defines the U.S. Secret Service.
The president’s mental and physical decline is surely something that Secret Service agents assigned to the Presidential Protective Detail and officers at the White House complex have noticed over the past twelve months. But while there have been occasional rumors of Secret Service experiences with a confused Biden, those rumors have yet to be substantiated in either source scale or information.
Yet, considering that Biden now struggles to get through a public event without some kind of mental lapse, it seems very likely that the reason we have not had Secret Service leaks is because of the agency’s professionalism and not because Biden’s private mental lapses haven’t been noticed. As with Biden’s public lapses, his private lapses are probably occurring in ways that would alarm the public were they to be aware of them.
We know from plain sight that the Secret Service are uncomfortable with the president’s declining state. When Biden pauses in a moment of confusion the agents around him remain static but, as in videos such as this one, the head of his detail (shown just to his left) is obviously uncomfortable. Also of note, the agent in charge will often follow closely behind Biden when the president walks down the steps of Air Force One. This includes ceremonial events where it is customary to follow only once the president has reached the bottom of the stairs. It signifies escalated concern not over possible security threats but rather that Biden may lose his footing. Regardless of the president in question, two agents are always assigned to stand post immediately at the foot of the stairs.
The Secret Service’s code of secrecy matters. Those being protected must be able to trust those who are protecting them to keep their confidence. Absent that trust, an individual will be unable to live in somewhat normalcy and will likely take actions in pursuit of privacy that jeopardize their own safety.
When it comes to protecting the president, there is little to no margin for error here. Effective presidential protection must consider threats ranging from nuclear war to terrorists hidden among a receiving ceremonial guard down to that of a lone gunman. And when protection teams fail, as with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico’s security detail during the May assassination attempt he suffered, the consequences can be disastrous. This professionalism also underlines why the Secret Service deserves better than being used as campaign advertising props.
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This is not to say that the Secret Service hasn’t had its issues in recent years. In April, for example, the Washington Examiner was the first to report on an alarming incident in which an armed agent assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris’s protective detail physically fought with two senior detail agents and had to be handcuffed.
Its challenges aside, however, the Secret Service’s ability to keep the trust of those it protects, whether Democrat or Republican, is a great marker of its professionalism.