In recent times, there has been a noticeable decline in the confidence of Americans concerning the ability of the Secret Service to protect political candidates. This shift in sentiment comes in the wake of an assassination attempt on former President Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13th. The would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, nearly succeeded in his bid, with his shot grazing the Republican presidential nominee’s ear. The swift action of the Secret Service resulted in Crooks being eliminated immediately.
The fallout from this near miss has led to intense scrutiny and criticism of the agency. This culminated in the resignation of its director, Kimberly Cheatle. According to a poll by the Associated Press/ NORC Research Center released on Friday, 28% of Americans expressed “not very” or “not at all” confidence in the ability of the Secret Service to fulfill its mission, while 40% stated they were “somewhat” confident.
The same poll revealed that 29% of Americans lacked confidence in the US Department of Homeland Security’s capability to conduct a “full and fair investigation” into the attempted assassination, with only 36% expressing high levels of confidence. These numbers tended to become more extreme along partisan lines, with Democrats generally showing more confidence in the Secret Service and DHS, while Republicans were more skeptical.
However, despite this lack of confidence from some sections of the public, strong majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agreed on the root cause of the shooting, which they attributed to political divisions within the United States.
The Trump family has remained supportive of the Secret Service in the face of these events. When asked about her confidence in the agency, Lara Trump, former president Trump’s daughter-in-law and co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, stated that she continued to have complete confidence. In a brief interview conducted at the Republican convention last month, Lara Trump emphasized the high level of professionalism exhibited by the Secret Service personnel who had protected her family during their time in office.
The Associated Press/ NORC poll was conducted between July 25th and 29th among a sample size of 1,143 adults, with a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points.
