Tipsheet

Secret Service Director Is Refusing to Accept Any Accountability for Near-Trump Assassination

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  July 16, 2024 10:00 AM

As the Biden administration closes ranks to protect itself, preemptively declaring "100 percent confidence" in the Secret Service even before an "independent review" of the events surrounding the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is complete, the Fraternal Order of Police is pushing back on USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle's attempts to scapegoat state and local authorities for the nearly catastrophic breach of security. 

Cheatle, who is refusing to step down or accept accountability while claiming the "buck" stops with her, sought to blame local authorities for not securing the building atop which the shooter nearly killed Trump. "In this particular instance, we did share support for that particular site," Cheatle claimed in an interview this week. The Secret Service, she stated, was "responsible for the inner perimeter" while the USSS "sought assistance from our local counterparts for the outer perimeter." 

Putting a finer point on it, Cheatle said there were "local police in that building" from the roof of which the shooter rained down bullets at Trump and his supporters and they "were responsible for the outer perimeter of the building." 

She must have attended Joe Biden's Shameless School of Avoiding Accountability. 

Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) National President Patrick Yoes, on behalf of state and local law enforcement across the country, delivered some inconvenient truths for Cheatle who, again, is trying to close the case before the Biden-ordered independent review — as well as oversight efforts from Congress — have turned up any conclusive information. 

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"All of us want answers to our questions," Yoes said in a release. "There was, as Secretary Mayorkas said earlier, a security failure—one that nearly cost former President Trump his life."

The reaction from FOP notes that the Secret Service's "primary function" is "to provide for the protection and security on sites like the one in Butler, Pennsylvania," where Trump's rally on Saturday was held. "In order to carry out this law enforcement mission, the safety and security of the protectee, the USSS relies on the support and assistance of local law enforcement. While these local officers do not all have specialized training in individual protection, they are fully capable of assisting at these large events, whomever the protectee may be," the release emphasizes. 

Yoes urged observers to "remember that the law enforcement mission is a shared mission and law enforcement at every level routinely cooperates and collaborates with one another. More than 90% of U.S. law enforcement are State and local officers," he noted. "They would not be as effective at their jobs without the support of the Federal colleagues, and our Federal partners would be unable to perform their functions without the assistance of State and local agencies," emphasized Yoes. "Suggestions made in the media that suggest local agencies should play no role in assisting the USSS at events like the one in Butler simply do not know what they are talking about."

While the independent review and congressional probes proceed, the 2024 campaign isn't going to be on hold. Yoes said "the coming election will be an extraordinary challenge for the Secret Service" from a "law enforcement and security standpoint." The USSS, he continued, "will be advancing and planning security for the candidates at sites all across the nation for the next four and a half months. In making and executing these plants to protect the candidates, they will need to rely on State and local law enforcement to ensure the protection mission is successful," warned Yoes. 

"Yet, in the wake of some of the anonymous comments from unknown officials, State and local agencies may wonder if they can rely on the Secret Service," Yoes cautioned. "I am concerned that anonymous statements or media speculation could have a chilling effect on the ability of Federal, State, and local law enforcement to work together through what will certainly be a grueling campaign."

Indeed. If the Biden-picked Secret Service brass is going to deny any responsibility for its mission to keep its protectees from being harmed or assassinated while throwing its critical state and local partners under the blame bus, that's not exactly a partnership that such departments — already short-staffed and demoralized thanks to the defund-the-police movement — will be thrilled to join.