I’m sure by now everyone has seen near-endless replays of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump on a campaign swing through Butler, Pennsylvania, hard on to the Ohio border.  Real MAGA country. 

If you’ve done that, you’ve seen how the Secret Service didn’t perform.  Sadly, they looked like a bunch of Keystone Kops, a slapstick band of inept cops whose silent movie performances were so inept that your only options are to laugh at the insanity, or cry at, well, the insanity.

I’m not a law enforcement official – never been one.  But I have managed state-level media and strategy for three presidential campaigns, which means I’ve been a part of planning presidential election campaign events in South Carolina and Tennessee. 

Each event was heavily screened by the Secret Service.  I’ve also dealt with the Secret Service when, in 1978, they designated the hospital I then worked for as the official “Receiving Hospital” if the then-President Carter had a medical issue on a flight from D.C. to his home in Plains, Georgia.  Should that have happened, we were advised that the Secret Service would big-foot us, taking control of my hospital.  This was not optional.

Finally, in the mid-1990s, I was the unpaid PR advisor to the then Drug Czar, a retired general, Barry McCaffrey, a hard-charging former tank commander who knew less about PR than he did about drugs, or how to fight them.  But that’s a story for another day. 

I was unpaid by Gen. McCaffrey, but I was by my client, the National Drug Prevention Association. 

McCaffrey’s office was “officially” part of the White House, though his physical office was on the eighth floor of an office building across 17th Avenue from the Old Executive Office Building – OEOB.  As such, Gen. McCaffrey rated Secret Service protection.

So I do have at least some experience with the Secret Service.

Here's what I learned.  They are (were) well-trained, reasonably well-paid and highly motivated.  While there were no restrictions on hiring by race or gender, the Secret Service was a meritocracy.  What they wanted – at least for the presidential detail – were large individuals who were amazingly fit, remarkably well-schooled in the use of firearms, and willing to put their bodies between shooters and the president.  When John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate President Reagan forty-three years ago, he shot Special Agent Tim McCarthy in the abdomen, hitting him as the Special Agent was turning to protect President Reagan with his body – proof that Secret Service Agents would actually become human shields, if necessary.

However, today, while that credo may still be in the playbook, there are other factors now at play.  Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle had long experience with then Vice President Biden, so – as president – he appointed her to head up the agency.  However, someone – presumably President Biden – set her priorities based on DEI: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, instead of the traditional priority of making sure the president doesn’t DIE. 

One of her personal priorities was to ensure that thirty percent of all field agents – including those who protect the president – must be women.  These women might be of the right mindset – putting themselves between the president and a shooter – but the ones we all saw on Saturday didn’t meet one of the basic requirements.  Specifically, they weren’t big enough to protect the president with their bodies. 

So ask yourself this:  How well can a five-foot-six agent protect a six-foot-three president? 

Fast Forward to last Saturday.  When President Trump was shot, here’s what I noted:

• The president reacted before his agents did.  He could be seen feeling and hearing the bullet.  When he did, he put his hand to his ear and saw blood, then he dropped down, kneeling behind a bullet-proof half-wall covered with bunting, just as he’d been trained.  Only after this did the members of his presidential detail spring into action, finally putting their bodies between him and any potential shooters.  Just as they’re trained, though not as efficiently.
• Once they decided to take President Trump to the “Beast,” the heavily armored SUV used by presidents and presidential candidates.  That’s when their Keystone Kop-ishness became really apparent.  The president, realizing that he hadn’t been seriously hurt, wanted to let the thousands of supporters at the event know he was O.K.  That’s understandable, but this diversion isn’t in the Secret Service playbook, so a bit of chaos ensued. Then they more-or-less manhandled the president toward the Beast.  Two of those agents were women who seemed to be about five-foot-six.  President Trump, whom they swore to protect, stands around six-foot-three.  This would have been funny if it wasn’t so potentially dangerous.
• When they got the president safely into the Beast, one of the (female) agents had trouble holstering her firearm, a move that should be instinctive.
• While the president has executive oversight of the agency, it is up to the Secret Service agents to protect him as their only priority.  So, when a president gives an order that runs contrary to their sole priority, they should follow that instead of his directions.  Why is this important?  Well, first, while it’s understandable why President Trump wanted to reassure his followers that he was fine and still in the fight, if there had been more than one shooter, he might be dead by now, because the Secret Service agents did the following:
  • They didn’t forcibly move him away from the podium while he was standing tall and not moving.
  • When he said he wanted his shoes, they stopped while the shoes were retrieved; then, when he lost his MAGA hat, one of his female agents bent over, leaving the president vulnerable to another shot from the sniper.  If the shooter hadn’t already been dead – something she didn’t know – she’d been in the primary blocking position.  This hat recovery, which might have proved fatal, also slowed down the move from podium to the Beast.
  • When they got to the stairs leading down from the platform, there was a scrum among the agents because the stairs were not wide enough to hold the president and all the agents. If there had been other shooters, this inept decision could have proved fatal.
  • Finally, when they got to the Beast, there was another scrum as they decided who’d push President Trump into the very real safety of the protective vehicle.

As I said, real Keystone Kops.  Which makes me wonder – if President Biden finally allows the Secret Service to provide the additional agents to President Trump’s “detail,” which the Trump campaign clearly needs, will he be moved by DEI or by DIE?

Ned Barnett, a contributor to American Thinker since 2006 and the author of forty published books, is the founder of Barnett Marketing Communications, providing services to political campaigns as well as high-tech and start-up businesses, along with book authors.  For authors he provides ghostwriting (as needed), editing and – most important, book marketing.  He can be reached at nedbarnett51@gmail.com or 702-561-1167.

Image: Screen shot from CSPAN video, via YouTube