Conservative pundit, author, and entrepreneur Dan Bongino, who spent 12 years as a Secret Service agent, recently called for the agency’s current director to immediately step down following the near-assassination of former President Donald Trump. Describing the attack at a Saturday rally in Butler, Pennsylvania as an “apocalyptic security failure,” Bongino was responding to a statement released by the agency which claimed officials had added protective resources and technology capabilities due to the increased campaign travel tempo.
Bongino, who once served on the protective details of then-Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama after a stint as an instructor at the Secret Service Training Academy in Maryland, criticized his former employer for refusing to take responsibility for the incident. He argued that several prior discoveries by bystanders, local police, and Secret Service agents on the scene should have led to some sort of intervention against the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks.
The Secret Service has denied reports that Trump’s security detail requested reinforcements and were denied; however, Bongino asserts that he can provide evidence to prove otherwise. He stated that he had received multiple confirmations from people involved in the incident.
Bongino summarized the situation as his interview concluded: “Never forget, an uneventful failure is never a success, and the fact that Donald Trump didn’t die yesterday is no reason for anybody to take some kind of victory lap.
After the federal protection agency claimed that local police were required to secure the building and rooftop used by Crooks, the head of the Fraternal Order of Police ripped into the U.S. Secret Service. The group’s president, Patrick Yoes, also said that the federal agency’s primary function is to protect Trump wherever he is. Yoes made his remarks after the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, doubled down on her agency’s claim that local police were supposed to secure that building.
Fox News adds: The Secret Service has come under fire after it was revealed the alleged shooter was able to obtain an elevated shooting position just outside the security perimeter of the rally. Yoes noted that the agency relies on the support and assistance of local authorities for such events, emphasizing that suggestions made in the media that imply local agencies should play no role in assisting the Secret Service at events like the one in Butler are misguided.
Yoes expressed his concerns about anonymous statements or media speculation potentially having a chilling effect on the ability of Federal, State, and local law enforcement to work together through what will certainly be a grueling campaign season.
