What the Secret Service got wrong
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 July 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Saturday, Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate former president Donald Trump. Crooks got on top of a roof near the Butler, Pa., rally and shot toward the rally stage. But almost a minute and a half before Crooks fired, bystanders alerted security that they saw a man on a roof.
Since the assassination attempt, the Secret Service – the organization meant to protect current and former presidents – has been under scrutiny. Today, guest host Chris Velazco speaks with investigative reporter Carol Leonnig about the Secret Service – how they work, their past failures and how they responded at the scene.
Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson and Ali Bianco. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks to Peter Wallsten and Isaac Stanley-Becker.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | At least 86 seconds, almost a minute and a half. That's how much time passed from the moment people shouted warnings about a man on a roof to when pops were heard. |
| 0:15.2 | We now have a better sense of the timeline from Saturday's Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. |
| 0:21.2 | And a quick heads up that we'll be talking through and listening to some of the |
| 0:24.7 | videos of how that evening unfolded. If you want to really see something that said |
| 0:30.1 | take a look what happened. The videos raised a lot of questions for the secret service, like what happened that allowed a 20-year-old to climb a roof and attempt to |
| 0:45.4 | assassinate former President Donald Trump. And why couldn't anyone stop him? |
| 0:51.0 | After Trump ducked down onto the stage, secret service agents could be heard |
| 0:55.2 | asking the question that a lot of people had in the aftermath. What are we doing? |
| 1:04.0 | What was the secret service doing? What was the Secret Service doing? |
| 1:06.0 | You know, when I first heard this news, it was from my editor calling me to tell me that he needed my help. As soon as he told me I went to the videos, |
| 1:18.1 | I went to all of the material like it's Gower and what I was stunned by was that it appeared to be an open line of sight |
| 1:27.6 | between where the shooter was on a roof directly to the stage where Donald Trump was standing. This issue of line of |
| 1:36.2 | sight is something that secret service agents have been sleepless about since 1963. |
| 1:43.0 | That's Carol Lening. |
| 1:45.0 | She's an investigative reporter at the post. |
| 1:48.0 | She's reported extensively on the Secret Service. |
| 1:51.0 | She even wrote a book about the agency. It focused in part on how much security |
| 1:55.6 | has changed since the assassination of John F. Kennedy. |
| 1:59.4 | Every single agent that works on a security plan for an event. |
| 2:03.0 | Their first step is, |
| 2:05.0 | where are the lines of sight to possibly harm my |
| 2:10.0 | protectee, my president, or my vice president or my candidate and then they seek to |
... |
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