In yet another major embarrassment for the already disgraced United States Secret Service (USSS), an agent shot himself on Saturday night.
There are few details: the agent survives.
The once-respected institution has come under intense fire since the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, followed by another at one of Trump's golf courses in Florida.
The actions of the female agents at Butler, the one who rampaged at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, D.C., and the one who took a break to breastfeed her baby at a Trump campaign event raise questions not only about the safety of those the agency protects, particularly the president and vice president, but also about its priorities.
And, predictably, public trust in the institution has collapsed, according to Gallup polls.
“Accidental firing”
The Secret Service did not say where the agent, a uniformed officer, shot himself or the extent of his injuries.
However, the station reportedly told Fox News that “the 'accidental shot' occurred just before 8 p.m. near 32nd Street and Fessenden Avenue in Northwest Washington, D.C.”
The gun was fired while the officer was on duty and handling his duty weapon.
The USSS added that the agent's injuries were not life-threatening and he was transported to a local hospital for treatment and examination.
The agency's Office of Professional Ethics is investigating.
The update on the Secret Service, which was transferred from the Treasury Department to the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, comes after two assassination attempts as well as revelations that former director Kim Cheatle had misplaced priorities.
Weak perimeter security
The revelation that the CIA was making preparations while two assassins were preparing to assassinate President Trump suggests that the agency cannot or will not provide adequate security for the 45th president (the agency has rejected multiple requests from the Trump campaign for more protection).
In the first case, the local police were tasked with providing security around Butler's event, a rash decision that was made after investigators encountered would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks three hours before the event and knew he was carrying a golf rangefinder.
Local police counter-sniper officers shared text messages and photos of Crooks before the shooting that killed firefighter Corey Comperatore.
Cheatle said the roof where Crooks tried to assassinate Trump was too steep for agents to safely position themselves, but a video taken by one of the shooting victims showed Crooks running easily across the roof.
Another unsettling fact for many was Cheatle's focus on the 30×30 program, whose goal is to have 30% of Secret Service agents be women by 2030.
The female agents guarding Trump appeared panicked and incompetent.
Two months later, there was another security blunder when Ryan Wesley Routh tried to shoot Trump while he was playing golf at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
The agency acknowledged that it did not search the golf course or secure the perimeter before Trump began playing, because “the round was an unofficial activity and was not on the former president's official schedule,” acting director Ron Lowe said.
Terrifyingly, Routh arrived at the course at about 2 a.m. and spent the next 12 hours waiting for an opportunity to assassinate Trump. When agents located him and opened fire, Routh fled. Martin County sheriff's deputies arrested him as he drove north on Interstate 95.
DEI Fails
It's unclear how much of the police department's failure can be attributed to Cheatle's efforts to feminize the police force, but as the work of female investigators in the Butler assassination attempt shows, “diversity, equity and inclusion” has not worked for the police force.
But two other incidents suggest the agency's priorities may be a bit off: In August, a female agent left her post to breastfeed her baby at a Trump campaign event in North Carolina, The New American reported, citing Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics, and other agents have been spotted dozing off at Mar-a-Lago.
Also in April, a female agent assigned to protect Vice President Kamala Harris at Joint Base Andrews suffered a mental breakdown, sources told Clubrey.
Agent Michelle Herceg took the senior agent's phone and deleted the apps. She was, according to Crabtree's report,
She hides behind a curtain while talking to herself, throwing items such as sanitary napkins at the agents, telling them that she will need them later to save another agent, and telling her companions that they must listen to God because they will burn in hell.
Herceg tackled his boss and began punching him.
Not surprisingly, she was hired despite failing a situational awareness course known as Hogan's Alley. According to a Change.org petition, Cheatle was the training center's director. “Chief Cheatle reportedly ignored warnings from tactical range instructors and approved the agent's graduation from training in order to meet the 30×30 pledge quota,” the petition reports.
Ms. Herceg also sued the Dallas Police Department for sex discrimination, seeking more than $1 million in damages, alleging that she was assaulted by a male supervisor, and that she was retaliated against for reporting sexual harassment. The court dismissed her lawsuit.
Those warning signs were ignored.
Cheatle, who resigned following the Butler, Pennsylvania, office's dismal performance, was tapped to lead the office because he is friends with first lady Jill Biden.
Gallup: Public approval rating drops
It's no wonder Americans wonder about the Secret Service.
“Americans' opinion of the Secret Service's job performance has deteriorated sharply to a new low in Gallup's 10-year trend,” Gallup reported in a recent poll.
“Roughly one in three U.S. adults currently rate the Secret Service's performance as 'excellent' (8%) or 'good' (24%), while 25% say it's 'fair' and 36% say it's 'poor',” the pollster continued.
After the two assassination attempts, “the percentage of Americans rating the Secret Service as excellent or good plummeted by 23 percentage points, while the percentage rating the Secret Service as poor rose by the same percentage.”
They continued.
The Secret Service's 23-point drop in 2024 matches the largest drop in agency ratings over the period Gallup has recorded. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's ratings fell 24 points between 2019 and 2021, from 64% to 40%, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal Reserve's ratings also fell 23 points, from 53% in 2003 after the Great Recession to 30% in 2009.
H/T: Ace of Spades
