According to Fox News, the Secret Service (SS) is lacking some 1000 personnel. This is an agency whose 2023 budget was some $3 billion dollars. It’s also an agency hampered by its former Director’s DEI lunacy. Any organization that embraces DEI must, of necessity, dramatically reduce candidate qualifications, yet somehow, the SS is dangerously understaffed.

Years ago everyone in law enforcement (LE) knew getting into the SS was almost impossible. Qualifications were stringent, competition fierce. Are potential candidates, like potential military recruits, unwilling to submit to woke indoctrination? Keep that in mind as you read on.

In his appearance before Congress, Acting SS Director Ronald Rowe made a few admissions, but was only minimally forthcoming:

Graphic: X Screenshot

In his opening statement Tuesday, Rowe said he was “ashamed” of the Secret Service’s inability to protect the president and rallygoers at the Butler rally and could not defend “why the roof was not better secured.”

Sen. Josh Hawley demanded that there be firings over the security failures at the rally, arguing that the “site agent” who came up with the security plan that day should be removed from duty.

“Why don’t you relieve everybody of duty who made bad judgments?” Hawley asked, raising his voice.

But Rowe pushed back aggressively.  

“I will not rush to judgment,” Rowe retorted. “I will do so with integrity and not rush to judgment and put people…unfairly persecuted.”

“Unfairly persecuted?” the Missouri Republican exclaimed. “We have people who are dead!”

“We have to have a proper investigation into this, senator,” said Rowe, who Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tapped to replace Cheatle after she resigned. Rowe had served as Cheatle’s hand-picked deputy director.

Hawley is usually right in exposing governmental corruption and ineptitude, but this time he’s wrong, or at the least, premature. And while Rowe was less than forthcoming, defensive, and said some dimwitted things, he’s right about this.

Police officers at all levels have to be able to believe they’ll have a reasonable benefit of the doubt and due process, that their superiors won’t sample the political winds and stab them in the back, that any alleged mistakes are competently and fairly investigated, and that any discipline contemplated or delivered is in line with previous discipline in like circumstances and in any case, is not politically motivated or excessive.

But the former POTUS almost got killed! One guy died and two more were badly wounded! The SS had one job and blew it!

All the more reason to proceed carefully, professionally, and to be sure even the appearance of politics isn’t present.

One of the most serious problems in such situations, particularly under an administration that loathes the Constitution and either ignores the rule of law or warps it to their ends, is “leaders” whose disastrous policies like DEI cause all manner of problems are virtually never held accountable, and more commonly, promoted. It’s middle-ranking and lower-ranking troops, the people who do the work, who risk their lives every day, who suffer so politicians can hide their culpability while simultaneously whacking the table and proclaiming: “by God, we did something!”

Were there serious mistakes that day in Pennsylvania? Of course, and as so often happens, they compounded each other, leading to a deadly cascade of failure. But why did they occur? Were personnel improperly trained? Were they improperly supervised, even given wrong, deadly orders? Were they denied the personnel and equipment they needed to do their jobs? Did they warn their superiors of their problems and their all but certain effects? Were decisions made for reasonable, practical, and competent reasons, or were they political, even malicious? Where does an individual SS agent’s culpability begin and end?

The SS, like all law enforcement, is a paramilitary organization. There is a strict chain of command, and orders are given and obeyed. One does not hold an agent accountable for being inadequately trained or for following bad orders. In such cases, the fault is those who were responsible for proper training, yet failed to provide it, or those who issued incompetent orders, or those who failed to properly staff or equip a protection detail.

If the SS, supposedly the best trained and most professional such agency in the world, turns out agents who can’t holster their weapons, the fault is not the hapless agent’s. If agents are thrown to the wolves for the sins of their political masters, if they believe they won’t get that reasonable benefit of the doubt and real due process, if DEI matters over all, agents who can’t holster their handguns will be the least of the SS’s—and their protectee’s--worries.

Consequences, including firing, for the deserving? Of course, but take the time for a careful, complete and professional investigation. Whether anyone will be able to believe its conclusions is another article.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.