Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Mike Lawler (R-NY) observe the “attempted assassination of former President Trump was a dark moment in our nation’s history. As reports continue to emerge, it’s clear that more protection is needed for all major candidates for president. That’s why we’re planning on introducing bipartisan legislation providing President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. with enhanced Secret Service protection. Anything less would be a disservice to our democracy.”
It’s not yet clear what specific actions Torres and Lawler’s legislation would take but their effort is obviously well-intentioned. It’s certainly good politics in an environment where people have been shaken by the near assassination of a presidential candidate and the murder of an innocent father.
Still, adding protection is no zero-sum game. For a start, the Secret Service lacks a sufficient number of counter assault teams, counter-sniper teams, and other specialist units (such as HAMMER) to provide maximal coverage for both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, let alone candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. These units are highly skilled and very difficult to be selected for. And for good reason. After all, they must be able to operate in catastrophic conditions and address threats with speed while protecting innocent civilians. The counter-sniper teams train hard to target assassins hiding in tightly packed crowds, for example. The quality of these units means that they are necessarily finite in number.
But the Secret Service is overburdened with protective taskings more broadly. The agency had prepared the protective detail newly assigned to Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), and his family. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. While the Secret Service refuses to divulge the specific number of its protectees, it is larger than many would imagine. Because the president can direct the Secret Service to assign protective details at his own discretion, successive presidential administrations have assigned details to an ever-increasing number of persons. Some of these details are necessary, such as with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton (under protection in relation to assassination threats from Iran).
Problematically, however, protective details have also been assigned to persons who do not have a threat profile requiring 24/7 Secret Service protection. Considering the Secret Service must also protect visiting heads of state and other specially designated individuals, its workload has led to a significant drain on the Secret Service’s protective operations capacity. Morale is low and short-notice travel requirements high. Field agents are increasingly being removed from counterfeiting and cybercrime criminal investigations to provide cover for protective requirements, sometimes significantly disrupting those criminal investigations.
The central issue is one of manpower and resourcing. The Secret Service needs more agents and uniformed division officers to support its protective mission. It also needs presidents who are willing to pare back the number of protective details assigned to random White House staffers. Staffers, it should be said, who enjoy being driven around in armored vehicles and turning up at restaurants alongside earpiece-wearing agents.
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Yet even if Congress now appropriates necessary funding, new personnel cannot be recruited and trained overnight. Until then, the agency will have to rely upon its federal law enforcement partners and local and state law enforcement to fill in the gaps.
And as we saw on Saturday, the risks of that reliance are all too clear.