Inside an Unprepared Secret Service

hey it's Michael we gave you a heads up. about this last week but as a reminder. or in case you didn't hear the episode. you might see some changes coming to the. show this week if you're like most. people and you listen to us on Apple. podcast or on Spotify you're going to. notice that the times is going to ask. you to subscribe if you want full access. to our podcasts including the daily as. we said every day our newest episode. that day show will remain free fre to.

everyone listening everywhere and so. will shows from the previous few days. but if you want full access to our past. shows and full access to all the New. York Times podcasts like Ezra Klein. Modern Love the runup the interview hard. Fork you'll have to subscribe we think. the easiest thing to do is to become a. subscriber to all of the New York Times. you get access to the newspaper the. games the cooking app and all of our. podcasts but if you don't want to.

subscribe to everything you can get just. an audio subscription so even though you. don't have to subscribe to hear the. daily we genuinely hope that you'll. consider this a way of supporting the. work that we do here and supporting the. journalists of the New York Times we. make this show for you our listeners and. we couldn't do it without your. support from The New York Times I'm. Rachel Abrams and this is the daily.

[Music]. after the assassination attempt on. former president Trump in Butler. Pennsylvania Congress held hearings on. the failures of the Secret Service what. exactly do you see as the core problem. that led to your agency being outgunned. by a 20-year-old using his father's gun. and acting on his own without a. particularly sophisticated plan or. technology they questioned the actions. of the agents that day and the agency's. leadership I think that we are waiting.

to determine exactly what those failures. or failure was director Kimberly cheel. struggled to provide answers and soon. after stepped down Weeks Later another. man attempted to shoot the former. president increasing concerns that. something had gone very wrong at the. Secret Service the focus in Washington. is now on the Secret Service does the. agency need more funding or are there. other shortcomings they need to address. today my colleague Eric Lipton on why.

the agency's recent failures are. indicative of much more troubling. [Music]. issues it's Monday October. [Music]. 14th hi Eric thanks for being here. thanks for having me so you have spent. the last few months looking into the.

Secret Service and that is an agency. that I think for a lot of Americans. represents the absolute most elite group. of Law Enforcement Officers but it's an. agency that has come under real scrutiny. after not one but two assassination. attempts against former president Donald. Trump so just to start can you tell us. what did you know about the Secret. Service when you started this reporting. what was your impression of them I. certainly knew the pop culture image of. the Secret Service the Hollywood version. of.

the men mostly in historically at least. in their suits and the earpieces and. their guns who are willing to take a. bullet to protect the president but I. didn't actually know very much at all. about the interworkings of this agency. and as I started out on this I began to. wonder whether or not there were some. systemic issues at the agency that. helped explain why there was such. security failures in Butler PA on July. 13th so for an agency that's supposed to. be so impenetrable it seems like a.

Monumental reporting assignment to. actually try to get in there and talk to. people whose job is supposed to be so. secretive how did you go about trying to. get inside and get people to talk to you. about what some of the problems might be. it was a pretty intimidating assignment. and I was sort of sitting there thinking. how am I going to get inside I started. with a couple of leads from my. colleagues who' been covering the July. 13th shooting and they gave me the names. and phone numbers of a few agents that. they had interacted with and I just.

started with those names and I called. them and began conversations these were. retired agents some of them had been out. for quite a while but it began a process. of you know one relationship led to. another and it was a daisy chain of. phone calls where you are building trust. with each person you speak with and what. I found was that in fact even though. it's the Secret Service that these are. people that really wanted to talk and. that they had a lot of admiration for. the job but at the same time a sense. that they weren't sure could really do.

the job because of all of the challenges. that they were facing and they wanted to. talk about that and just to take a step. back for a second can you just describe. for us what is the job what is the life. cycle of a secret service agent I mean. there are a few jobs anywhere where you. have to be perfect and any imperfection. when it comes to protecting the. president means potentially the life of. the president and so on any given day. there can't be even the slightest errors. in that line of work and so it it does.

attract a certain type of a person it's. a very intense job and it was something. that I didn't know at all before I. started on the story but they have what. they call phase one phase two and phase. three and in all three of the phases of. their career they are helping provide. protection to certain key figures in the. government phase one they typically are. assigned to a field office in you know. St Louis or Chicago or Pittsburgh where. the secret service has agents that are. basically.

investigators that are looking at. Financial crimes and they occasionally. do protective detail when the president. or some dignitary comes to town or. provide surge capacity for special. events phase two is when they get into. the security detail and this is usually. like three to four or five years into. their career and then they are on either. the president's detail which is the most. elite or the vice president's detail or. the former president's detail they're in. chapaqua you know the clintons maybe Mar. Lago Trump Jimmy Carter even and that's.

phase two phase three they graduate to. becoming a boss or they're in one of the. specialized units they're overseeing the. Sharpshooters they're a special agent in. charge of a regional office they're at. the training center and so what I heard. at each of the phases of their careers. from these agents was that at every. single level there just were not enough. people to do the job that they were. expected and why is that.

part of this is that the Secret Service. in the last decade or so has been asked. to cover more and more government. officials protectees they call them the. number of protectees went from 26 in. 2015 to 59 in. 2021 and that's because the president. who has this Authority kept adding more. people to the Secret Service list of. those folks that they had to basically. live next side to and be there at any. moment to make sure that they were not.

going to be a subject of an attack it. goes back to Obama's tenure in the White. House to Valerie Jarrett one of the top. officials during the Obama. Administration who was added to the list. and then there were so many people that. the agency was tasked with covering. during Trump's tenure his adult children. the grandchildren and top officials that. he wanted the Secret Service to cover. and that was just more work for these. agents even though there were not. necessarily more people to do the job. yeah I remember when Trump was in office. we would frequently read all these.

stories about how he was flying all over. the world with the Secret Service and. with his children and staying at Trump. properties and all of that seemed like. and it was reported that it was putting. a lot of strain on the agency it was. there was a great deal of international. travel particularly by his adult. children and they were a very demanding. family to follow and that put more work. on the Secret Service it it was perhaps. the greatest demand in Modern Times And. during Biden's Administration initially.

the number of protees went down once the. Trump family members came off the list. but since then grew again and it's now. hit 42 people that are being protected. and they knew in 2023 as the 24 election. was approaching that this was going to. be a crazy year they had a NATO Summit. in Washington DC that was planned they. had the RNC and the DNC conventions but. it wasn't just increasing demand for. more people to protect it also is an era.

of increased political violence and. violent rhetoric and a sense that the. threat environment was much worse than. it has historically been the Secret. Service was very much aware of that. social media and the echo chamber social. media it made their job much harder so. you have this looming crisis which is a. shortfall of Agents the growing demands. the job the threats how does all of this. actually impact the. agency well there's a rush to make up. for that shortfall and the agents who.

are in the field on protection Duty for. the president and the vice president. they're stretch pretty thin so to bridge. this Gap the agents are spending less. time in phase one of their career and. they're being rushed more quickly into. phase two which is the protective work. and that's when they're protecting the. president or other highlevel dignitaries. full-time and not only that agents who. are helping protect the president are. being asked to work long hours and they.

often aren't being compensated properly. because the secret service agencies have. this federal salary cap and so agents at. times are filing for overtime but they. aren't being paid because they've hit. the cap it's kind of incredible to think. that the Secret Service isn't paid for. their work yeah and that leads these. agents to not only be exhausted but sort. of disgusted that there they are working. for free and the phase in which you're. on the president's detail that's the. most grueling phase of an agent's career.

they have no control over their schedule. they spend really long hours away from. home and they're feeling completely. burned out at our request actually the. law enforcement Association that. represents these Secret Service agents. did a survey to assess how they view the. job and again and again we found this. deep frustration with just how hard they. were being worked in a sense that the. bosses there didn't appreciate what. they're being put through and one of the.

agents I spoke with who had been. assigned to travel to Asia to help. protect president Trump before he left. office told me the story about how he. was traveling on an Air Force cargo. plane and the place that he was given to. sleep was underneath the chains that. were holding the president's bulletproof. limo in place and there he was trying to. sleep thinking to himself I'm just part. of the cargo here he was 54 years old he. wasn't that mandat retirement age and he.

just said I'm out I'm done with this and. he retired wow and the numbers are. pretty dramatic over 1400 agents and. other employees of the Secret Service. left in 2022 and 2023 and that's in an. agency that had only approximately 7,700. people so that's a pretty huge number. and what it meant was that the Secret. Service was going backwards it was. shrinking it wasn't getting bigger as. the 2024 election year was approaching. so what did the Secret Service do to try.

to address some of these problems I mean. they intensified their recruitment. efforts they began to offer Financial. incentives and pay even more overtime to. the remaining agents and to bring back. some of the agents that had retired as. rehired annuitant they called them and. so those were two solutions as to how to. get their numbers up that sounds on the. surface at least logical because. presumably it takes a very long time to. train and vet these agents so why. wouldn't you just rehire people who. already know how to do the job right and.

it seemed like a smart plan but in fact. what they found was that they were. offering agents that you could keep your. pension and you could come back and get. paid to do the job and that was such an. attractive thing that they started to. incentivize people to retire early so. this program that was intended to get. more agents into the field was actually. kind of backfiring and encouraging. agents to retire early it sounds like so. essentially the agency is shooting. itself in the foot here right and not.

only that but once these retired agents. came back they knew a bunch of former. friends who were now their bosses and. they were giving them desk jobs pretty. far away from the task of protecting the. president or other protectees a number. of them ended up in the field offices. like in the Miami Field office where I. was told that one agent saw one of these. rehired anant painting the wall of the. Miami Field office and was couldn't. believe that this was like the highest. paid painter in the United States.

government and so they weren't actually. getting much benefit from a number of. these folks that were coming back so. Eric you've explained all these. different ways that the secret service. has tried to tackle these problems. you've described but at the end of the. day they don't seem to be working that's. right they were actually going backwards. they were losing more people than they. were. hiring and the more that we dug into. this the more reporting that we did the. more that we realized that the problems. were much deeper than simply attrition.

and the inability to hire enough staff. that these were problems that were. really fundamental to the entire. agency's. [Music]. operations we'll be right. back so Eric before the break you said. that your investigation into the Secret. Service uncovered an even deeper set of.

problems so tell us what you found a big. part of this is a lack of sufficient. money and clout for many years the. Secret Service was a part of the. Department of Treasury and a treasury. was really the big dog it was the. largest law enforcement unit but after. 911 it was moved to the newly created. Department of Homeland Security and this. was a huge change Homeland Security is. just this giant bureaucracy it's it's. got Coast Guard Customs and Border.

Protection immigration enforcement TSA. it's just a giant agency and the Secret. Service became sort of an afterthought. and as a result it was unable to. effectively compete for the money that. it needed to equip and train its new. hires and so what's been the result of. that how has that actually hindered the. agency's ability to do its job perhaps. the biggest area that it's impacted is. Secret Service training the training.

facility that they have in Suburban. Maryland outside of Washington it's in. really pretty bad shape a third of the. buildings there according to a. consultant's study They concluded they. should just simply be demolished there's. a basement room where they train new. hires how to fight if they encounter an. as salent and that room floods routinely. when there's Heavy Rain the heating and. air conditioning I'm told is pretty. sporadic in some of these buildings. and one point the plumbing went out and.

they had the call off training. altogether and when they're training. agents how to protect the president on. Air Force One they have this prop that. they use it's the front half of a. retired plane that looks like it's from. the. 1960s it's sort of sad to look at this. thing and think that's what they're. using and when it comes to figuring out. how to protect and defend the White. House they don't even have a mock White. House that they can train around even. though they've been talking about about. building one for over a decade okay wait.

a second are you telling me that some of. the people that actually have to guard. the White House have never been inside. the White House or inside anything that. resembles the White House that's right. that's what the homeland security. secretary had told us himself that some. of the uniformed officers had never been. inside the White House the Secret. Service is so short on proper training. facilities that they actually sent on. several occasions their personnel down. to the Atlanta area to train at a mock. White House that Tyler Perry the.

Hollywood producer had built as a stage. there in Georgia that cannot be true. yeah it's hard to believe but that's. what the secret service has been left. with as its options for training its. people I mean back in 2014 after an as. salent got over the fence and into the. White House that began a conversation. that they needed a proper training. facility so that the uniform officers. knew what the building was like that. they were being assigned to defend it's. been over a decade and still the money. has not been appropriated to build this.

training facility at their site in. Maryland and and you got to wonder why. why why has it not gotten the money that. it needs to to properly train its own. people so why did this get to this point. how could the agency that is in charge. of protecting the president end up. relying on Tyler Perry's White House you. know the Secret Service acting director. didn't say this but what I heard from. other agents and other former bosses was. that the reality is that the Department.

of Homeland Security is fixated with the. southern border and when it has money. it's spending money to try to protect. the border and prevent more people from. crossing the border and that that is the. political imperative for the Department. of Homeland Security not to build a. training center for Secret Service. agents and and officers but on top of. all of this what we found is that there. are even more cultural tensions at the. agency particularly relating to how they. hire and promote people that were.

causing even more turmoil there's a. perception that promotions are not. simply based on Merit at the Secret. Service that too frequently it has to do. with who you know and that was a source. of great frustration for agents and for. officers and another reason why they. would say you know what I just want to. go work somewhere else for example the. guy that is in charge of the uniform. division one of the biggest parts of the. Secret Service the folks that protect. the White House they also are the.

Sharpshooters that protect the president. the chief of the uniform division in. addition to doing that job he was. Moonlighting as a real estate agent in. Maryland Wow and his clients included. officers that reported to him so he was. both their boss and he was being paid as. a real estate agent by them and then he. was promoting some of these same people. I was just startled at that I mean it. was such a conflict of interest it so. undermines the whole Merit promotion. process that you have a financial.

relationship with your subordinate and. then you promote that person and there. were people who were joking to me that. they they figured out that the best way. to get a promotion was to buy a house. with this Chief and and that was the. kind of jokes that were going around at. the Secret Service and as we got copies. of his real estate transactions and we. were able to see that there on the list. were several of the folks that worked. for him and we were able to document. that this was true and we presented that. information to the Secret Service and. said do this really happened were you.

aware of this and for the first time. they acknowledged that they were aware. of it that they had asked for an. inspector General investigation but none. of this was ever made public so Eric you. and our colleague David farenthold have. spent months reporting on this agency. and you've uncovered this institution. that has essentially been fighting for. resources for years and the culture just. sounds like it's broken at this point so. what is the fix here for years the. culture at the secret service has been. you ride your horse until it dies and. then you eat it you hear that same line.

from different agents there still today. but in order for the Secret Service to. turn this corner it's going to have to. change that it's going to have to hire. enough Personnel so that its staff is. not overworked it's going to have to. bring in sufficient technology so that. it can do its job with the most advanced. tools possible you know the Secret. Service acting director has said that. there's a new paradigm that the agency. must transition and that it needs. significantly more personnel and. Technology to do its job he's saying.

that as to whether or not it will get. the resources and we'll have the. leadership to deliver on that is an open. question Eric you've spoken to so many. agents since the story came out have you. heard from any of them what has their. reaction been yeah I heard from quite a. number of agents that were appreciative. that we put this all out there on the. record I think that there's a belief. that if they had more personnel and. better equipment that the incident in. Butler would not have played out as it. did.

the publication of our story to some. extent was a relief to see all of these. embarrassing Insider moments out in the. open and a certain hopefulness that. maybe this means that it's time that. they're going to be confronted but also. a certain skepticism that the Secret. Service is really ready to confront the. changes that it needs to make in order. to do the job in this violent era that. we now live in.

well Eric thank you very much thank. [Music]. you on Saturday a man was arrested and. accused of illegal weapons possession as. he was trying to enter a trump rally in. Coachella. California the man identified by local. law enforcement as VM Miller of Nevada. had gotten through an outer ring of. security as he drove in. he was eventually stopped by police.

before President Donald Trump arrived. and was later released on. bail reached by the Southern California. news group on Sunday Miller identified. himself as a trump supporter and said. that he was shocked at the. arrest in a joint statement with the US. attorney's office and the FBI the Secret. Service said it had determined that the. incident did not impact protective. operations and that the former president. was quote not in any.

[Music]. danger we'll be right. [Music]. back here's what else you need to know. today on Sunday the United States. military said it's sending an advanced. defense system to Israel along with.

about 100 American troops to operate it. this is the first deployment of US. forces to Israel since the October 7th. attacks the system will help defend. Israel from ballistic missiles like the. ones Iran fired at it on October. 1 and 3 2. 1 early Sunday morning SpaceX landed a. rocket booster back onto its own launch. site in Texas Texas a technical feat.

that brings the company one step closer. to founder Elon musk's ambitious plan to. make completely reusable spaced Rockets. uh we are go for. catch as it fell out of the sky at. supersonic speeds the returning rocket. booster set off Sonic. booms before returning to its platform. on. Earth NASA hopes to use a SpaceX rocket. during two upcoming missions that will. take astronauts to the Moon.

[Music]. today's episode was produced by Olivia. Nat AA chv Nina Feldman Stella tan and. Ricky. nety it was edited by Mike benois Mark. George and Chris haxel contains original. music by Marian Lozano and Alicia beup. and was engineered by Chris. Wood our theme music is by Jim brunberg. and Ben lansberg of wonderly. [Music].

[Music]. that's it for the daily I'm Rachel. Abrams see you tomorrow. [Music].