It’s completely reasonable to hold the Secret Service to account for a near-assassination of a former president and current candidate. It’s not reasonable to attack the director for being a woman. Even when they have a legitimate grievance, conservatives find a way to be their worst selves.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard the Secret Services’ mission described as “zero-failure.” I’ve heard discussions of their work that go something like “most people have wiggle-room in their job. If you make a mistake, it’s usually no big deal, you fix it and move on. The Secret Service doesn’t have that option, when they fail people die.” I’m not sure I completely agree with that characterization, but going along with it for a moment, how can the director not resign? She failed at her zero-failure job. It doesn’t mean she’s personally responsible for the shooting, but she is absolutely responsible for the agency’s failure to stop it.
Harris 2024! (phew that feels good to say)
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That’s a totally fair point, and if she really doesn’t step down now, it would make sense for her resignation to be expected after the election. But the leader of an agency like the Secret Service is not the one doing the day-to-day work of protection, they set the culture and make only the most critical high-level decisions. A big part of her job is simply to be accountable, and by not resigning she’s further entrenching what was already a really shitty culture of misbehavior and law-breaking at the Secret Service.
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putting my personal feelings aside, from what’s been publicly released so far about the timeline of events, this clearly appears to be a series of colossal failures from everyone involved in the security of the event, from the Secret Service detail to the police tasked with support services. As the Director, Cheatle should accept ultimate responsibility and resign, however there are a lot of other people who should also be held accountable, and I really want to hear that they will be, too.
To play devil’s advocate here, he didn’t have to have his rally in an open field. He could have done it indoors where everyone going in / out is being screened, and all the windows are guarded by USSS. I’m sure he did it in a field to save money.
My thoughts exactly. The campaign was warned several times about doing events outside like this. The failure was that the USSS allowed events they couldn’t secure.
I would say from here on the USSS offers security where it can and is not responsible for security should someone choose an unapproved venue.
There are many ways of seeing what was happening on that roof. A drone, another spotter next to the sniper, blocking any and all access to the roof. Trump sucks, but they definitely failed at their job.
They failed the nation by reacting as quickly as they did.
In their defense, he’s been damaged his whole life.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
