Growing exposure of the ineptitude within the White House and the agencies it oversees culminated in a catastrophic security failure witnessed worldwide on July 13: the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump.

While Trump was the target, he was not the only victim. Corey Comperatore, a beloved husband and father from Sarver, Pa., was killed by one of the assassin’s bullets while shielding his wife and daughter. Two others were critically injured. To say that the circumstances leading up to the shooting need to be investigated is a gross understatement.

As details continue to emerge on the massive security failures, blame is being placed squarely on the shoulders of the United States Secret Service (USSS). From failing to respond to bystanders’ pleas to ignoring their own protocols, the Secret Service stunned an entire nation with its incompetence on full display.

While calls for Director Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation grow louder, what many may not know is that the Secret Service itself has been in crisis-management mode for over a decade. And indeed, they may be bringing about their own demise.

A Decade of Failures

It’s not that the Secret Service’s dysfunction was unknown. Back in 2015, a bipartisan report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform highlights “problems that undermine USSS’s protective mission predate and postdate… [2012]”. In other words, Congress had been aware of systemic problems within the Secret Service for over a decade.

At the time, the Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz stated the agency was is in crisis. He added that while misconduct and security breaches persist, the Secret Service’s “mission inexplicably continues to expand beyond the zero-fail mission to protect the president … Strong leadership from the top is needed to address the systemic mismanagement and restore its former prestige.”

Findings from the report itself are a disturbing read in the wake of Saturday’s events, given the failure to address them.

From 2012-2014, three consecutive directors “provided inaccurate information to Congress.” A summary of the report highlights four separate incidents of security breaches and misconduct, ranging from shots fired on the White House to intoxicated Secret Service members interfering with a crime scene just outside the White House grounds.

Seemingly left unchecked, the agency’s woes worsened, exacerbated by ineffective presidential administrations, flawed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies, and low morale.

‘Zero-Fail,’ but Full of Failures

Unsurprisingly, the agency has faced continual criticism since Trump left office: In 2021, it was scrutinized for deleting text messages sent during the January 6 protests at the Capitol; in April 2024, a female agent physically assaulted her superior officer, and one month later the House Oversight Committee opened an investigation into the agency related to “incidents and reports of potential vulnerabilities.”

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Any one of these incidents is a monumental failure for a security agency whose mission is “zero- fail,” because a single flaw could be fatal. Detailing just one of these travesties, in a September 2014 incident at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters:

• “The President’s security was breached at least three times”
• “USSS allowed unvetted armed guards near the President”
• “USSS did not adhere to its own protective methodology while the President was at the CDC”
• “USSS initially blamed the CDC after an insufficient review of the incident.”

Fast-forward to July 13, 2024, delete the old bullet points, and insert these:

• A former president’s security was breached at the Trump rally
• USSS allowed a gunman on a roof with a clear line of sight to the candidate
• The USSS failed to follow its own protocol to immediately evacuate the former president upon learning there was an armed suspect on the roof
• USSS said no agent was stationed on the roof because it was too sloped to be safe.

A decade later, history repeats itself.

Death by DEI

Director Kimberly Cheatle, sworn in under Biden in 2022, further eroded crucial standards needed to keep the agency strong by advancing the agency’s fatally flawed DEI policies.

Touting diversity as a “major priority,” Cheatle committed to have 30% of the Secret Service agents be women by 2030. This misguided priority was already being scrutinized by Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who, referencing the female agent fired in April, highlighted his concerns about the agency’s hiring process — “specifically whether previous incidents in [this agent’s] work history were overlooked . . . as years of staff shortages had led the agency to lower once-stricter standards as part of a diversity, equity and inclusion effort.”

This DEI “priority” was also painfully on display at the Trump rally: While there is nothing wrong with female Secret Service agents, video footage, photographs, and media reports suggest three of the female agents surrounding Trump were massively incompetent — with one appearing to hide behind him and another (possibly the same one) unable to holster a gun. All were simply too short to properly shield him from projectiles.

Sympathetically, the blame should not be pinned on these women, but on Cheatle, who sent them on that assignment in the first place.

Ongoing Low Morale

As the 2015 report highlights, the agency continues to battle low morale, which has been ongoing for years. This May, a Bloomberg White House reporter shined a spotlight on an internal petition calling for a congressional investigation due to concerns that ranged from inadequate training to “potential insider threats” that could compromise national security.

Clearly, whatever internal policy changes the agency made (or did not make) to address morale has, like its security protocols, failed to achieve the desired result.

Indeed, could it be that the final death knell in the once-prestigious agency would come from at least 39 signatures within? In the wake of last week’s events, more than one Secret Service agent has reached out to investigative journalist James O’Keefe, who reported: “They are discouraged. There is the physical courage to fight, and then there is a more rare form of moral courage to have the stones to stand up publicly.”

One can only hope the agents still there will develop that soon.

Where to Go from Here

In a history-making plot twist, we are indeed witnessing an ironic turn: What should have resulted in the death of a presidential candidate could, in fact, result in the “death” of the Secret Service.

An investigation into the agency’s failings is not enough. Calling for Cheatle’s resignation is not enough, either. What is needed is a complete overhaul, if not end, of an agency whose incompetence created the circumstances that, by God’s hand alone, did not end in more than one death.

The Secret Service must do some soul searching. There are only two options: be cast into the dust bin of history, or return to its zero-fail core mission.

 

Mat Staver is the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel and chairman of Liberty Counsel Action.