The Secret Service has a storied past of triumph and tragedy
Photos: AP Images
The attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump has cast a spotlight on the United States Secret Service, the federal agency tasked with the security of the sitting president as well as former presidents and candidates for the office.
Experts have expressed incredulity that someone like would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks could get so close to the former president. Onlookers told the media they were shouting to law enforcement that Crooks was scaling a building to get into position to fire at Trump, but the response was too slow.
The current head of the Secret Service is Kimberly Cheatle, a woman who joined the agency as an agent in 1995 and now finds herself under intense public scrutiny. She was a member of the detail assigned to protect Vice President Joe Biden during the Obama administration. Biden appointed her to head the agency in 2022. One of Cheatle’s goals upon taking the helm was to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in hiring, and to increase the number of female agents by 30 percent.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, under whose department the Secret Service operates, is facing charges from Republican lawmakers that he denied stronger protection for former president Trump on several occasions. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said this week that “very reliable sources” told him that repeated requests for beefed-up protection from the Trump campaign were rejected by Mayorkas. A spokesperson for the Secret Service denied the charge.
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