Following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally Saturday, the U.S. Secret Service is under heightened scrutiny. A lone gunman’s bullet grazed the former president’s right ear at the event in Bulter, Pennsylvania.
The shooting left one attendee dead and two others seriously wounded.
The shooter, killed by a Secret Service sniper, was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. A review of public records shows Crooks registered to vote as a Republican, but he also made a small donation to a Democratic-leaning group.
The FBI has yet to identify a motive for his actions.
President Joe Biden ordered an independent review of the security at the rally, questioning how the gunman was able to come close to killing Trump despite a Secret Service detail being present at the rally.
Role
The Secret Service is a law enforcement agency that functions under the Department of Homeland Security. The agency is required to protect the U.S. president, vice president and former presidents, among other government officials and their families.
They are also required to protect major presidential candidates and their families — and started doing so after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, a leading candidate in the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries.
Saturday’s shooting
The FBI is overseeing the investigation into how Crooks was able to access the roof where he opened fire, but it has been reported that the building was left out of the Secret Service’s “hard” security perimeter.
CNN reported that rally attendees allegedly spotted a suspicious character outside of the rally, holding a rifle, prior to the shooting. Local law enforcement had also seen the individual and reportedly alerted the Secret Service. The suspect matched the gunman's description.
A witness from outside the rally, identified as Greg Smith, told the BBC that he saw the shooter climbing up the roof prior to shots being fired.
“We’re pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground. We’re like, ‘Hey, man, there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle,’” he said.
Smith said he pointed at the shooter for two to three minutes.
“Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn, I’m pointing at that roof … and next thing you know five shots rang out,” he said.
Roof seen as potentially vulnerable
NBC reported that the roof was designated as potentially vulnerable by the Secret Service days before the rally, but that the area was said to be under the authority of local law enforcement.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC News that "a direct line of sight like that to the former president should not occur.” Mayorkas oversees the Secret Service.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle released a statement Monday, saying the agency will work with Congress on “any oversight action.”
“The Secret Service is working with all involved federal, state and local agencies to understand what happened, how it happened and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever taking place again,” Cheatle said. “The incident in Pennsylvania has understandably led to questions about potential updates or changes to the security for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson said that there would be a congressional investigation into the incident.
Previous issues
Saturday wasn’t the first time in recent history that the Secret Service has been under scrutiny for protection measures.
In 2017, a man climbed over the White House fence with, at the time, President Trump in the White House, and roamed the grounds undetected for approximately 17 minutes.
A similar incident happened in 2014, when an individual with a knife scaled the fence of the White House and managed to get through the doors of the entrance hall.
In 2023, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan experienced a home invasion while inside his residence. Sullivan had a 24/7 Secret Service detail and had to alert them himself.
