An independent review panel is calling for fundamental changes at the Secret Service after the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tasked the panel with probing the Secret Service’s actions surrounding the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally where Trump was shot.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage after an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
In a scathing 52-page report released on Thursday, the panel concluded that “systemic issues” within the agency enabled the attempt on Trump’s life.
“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved,” the panel said in a letter accompanying its report.
The bipartisan panel comprised former Homeland Security and Justice Department officials from the administrations of former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, as well as a former Maryland State Police superintendent.
The group identified several security failures and breakdowns on the part of Secret Service personnel. Those included the failure to secure the Butler Farm Showgrounds, technology and communications breakdowns, and the failure to confront would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks or warn Trump’s detail about his presence, among others.
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The panel also blasted the Secret Service’s “do more with less culture” and general “lack of critical thinking,” calling for “fundamental reforms.”
One remedy the panel recommended was the installment of new leadership from outside the agency, which is currently being steered by Acting Director Ronald Rowe, who took over upon former Director Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation.
“Although experience within the service is laudable and important, and some members of a future leadership team will likely be Secret Service veterans, the events of Butler suggest that there is an urgent need for fresh thinking informed by external experience and perspective,” the panel said.
The panel also suggested that the Secret Service refocus on its protective mission and cautioned against viewing budget enhancements as the sole solution to the agency’s problems.
“If the remediation and reform dialogue around the failures of July 13 devolves into a discussion about how much additional money the service should receive, critical lessons from July 13 will have been lost,” the report states.
Responding in a statement, Rowe said the Secret Service would review the panel’s recommendations but added that the agency is “not waiting to act.”
He said the Secret Service has already improved its communications and protective operations and is also developing a plan for a “fundamental transformation” in support of its core goals.
“This plan focuses on increasing and retaining the agency’s personnel, modernizing our technology, and building a training plan that is sustainable now and into the future,” Rowe said.
He added that the Secret Service is working with Congress to increase the agency’s budget.
—Samantha Flom
IDF KILLS HAMAS LEADER SINWAR
Israeli forces have killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza. Sinwar is believed to have lived both above ground and in the network of tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip for the past year. He has led Hamas, which the United States designates a terrorist organization, since 2017.
Sinwar has been described by Israeli and U.S. leadership as a key architect of the attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which members of Hamas killed more than 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians.
A statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) laid blame for the ensuing conflict, which has devastated Gaza and left tens of thousands of people dead, squarely at Sinwar’s feet.
“It was Yahya Sinwar who decided to wage war with Israel while hiding behind civilians,” IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said during an official announcement of the killing.
“On this day, our thoughts are with the families of those murdered or kidnapped because of Sinwar,” he added.
Some 101 of the roughly 250 hostages originally taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 remain in the group’s custody, hidden away in hundreds of miles of underground tunnels beneath Gaza.
To that end, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin described the killing as a “major achievement in counterterrorism,” but pressed that the victory should pave the way for a lasting ceasefire and exchange of hostages.
“The death of Sinwar affords us all a major opportunity for progress toward the brighter future that both Israelis and Palestinians and the entire region deserve—and that Sinwar deliberately blocked,” Austin said in a prepared statement.
Likewise, President Joe Biden said that Sinwar had been “an insurmountable obstacle” to reaching a political settlement in the long-running conflict, one that had now been removed.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement addressing the families of the remaining hostages that Israel “will continue with all our might until the return home of all your loved ones, who are our loved ones.”
He also called for any remaining Hamas members in the Gaza Strip to surrender, and promised they would be allowed to leave the area if they returned the hostages.
“Whoever lays down his arms and returns our abductees, we will allow him to leave and live,” Netanyahu said.
—Andrew Thornebrooke
BOOKMARKS
Vice President Kamala Harris sparred with Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday in a fiery interview in which the pair often talked over each other. Topics discussed included immigration, foreign policy, and how Harris would differ from President Joe Biden.
Former President Donald Trump was asked on Wednesday to identify three things he admires about his Democratic presidential opponent. He said it was the “toughest question” he’d received at the Univision town hall.
A man who was arrested outside a Trump rally is suing the California sheriff who suggested that his department thwarted an assassination attempt by arresting him. The lawsuit seeks damages for alleged violations of Nevada resident Vem Miller’s rights.
The funeral service for Ethel Kennedy was the site of a rare joint appearance of Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in Washington on Wednesday. Biden delivered the eulogy for Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy Sr.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked a Georgia appeals court on Wednesday to reinstate six dismissed counts in her election interference case against Trump and other co-defendants. The charges were struck down by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee in March.
