CNN
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The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump — the U.S. Secret Service’s worst security lapse in four decades — has pitted the agency against local police, with each side claiming the other was responsible for securing the building where the shooter was located.
This public discrepancy represents a major departure from the usually close and successful relationship between the Secret Service and local police, and could lead to a decline in trust, further straining security operations.
The Secret Service is responsible for a long list of protected individuals and occasionally foreign dignitaries. It conducts thousands of trips that require protection—a huge burden that requires the assistance of local law enforcement.
In an interview with ABC News on Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said local police were in the building at the time of the shooting and their job was to secure the building, about 400 to 500 feet away but outside the hard perimeter and within view of the protest stage.
“There was local police in that building — there was local police in the area that was responsible for the outer perimeter of the building,” Cheatle said.
A source familiar with the investigation told CNN that snipers were stationed inside the building. The local sniper team, which came from the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, was on the second floor and monitored the crowd during the rally, the source said.
A former Secret Service agent disagreed with Cheatle’s placing so much blame on local law enforcement, telling CNN, “The Service is responsible for everything, not just the inner perimeter. They should be making sure all of this is covered.”
“Officers in a building — that’s no way to reduce the vulnerability of a high location,” the former officer said.
A Secret Service spokesman told CNN on Sunday that the agency did not search the building where Thomas Matthew Crooks was lying facedown and fired multiple shots at Trump. Instead, the spokesman said, that would have been the responsibility of local law enforcement — a routine operational decision — and that someone should have been assigned to the post.
Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents more than 1,200 Secret Service agents and officers, stressed that state and local law enforcement are invaluable partners to the Secret Service and that that relationship is built on trust.
“There’s going to be an erosion of that trust that’s caused by the injudicious statements of the Secret Service,” Pasco told CNN. “This is a betrayal of the leadership of the Secret Service by the brave men and women who go out there and do an extraordinary, professional job every day.”
“The Secret Service agents and officers, the men and women who were there, were heroes on Saturday,” Pasco said. “They were failed by a management plan.”
The former Secret Service agent told CNN that investigators will have to determine whether there were sufficient resources or personnel authorized by Secret Service leadership, and whether local police failed to maintain the integrity of their area of responsibility.
“None of this changes the fact that, given the terrain and line-of-sight realities of that event, the perimeter is far from extensive enough and is in fact dangerously close from a protective operational standpoint,” the source said.
Pasco, meanwhile, also objected to Cheatle’s delay in answering questions and issuing a public statement.
She told ABC News: “The ultimate responsibility lies with me.”
Pasco told CNN: “Apparently it took two days for the goat to stop.”
At a press conference Saturday night, where the Secret Service was not present, reporters wondered who, besides the Secret Service, was responsible for security at the meeting.
“Well, the Secret Service is always in charge of securing something like this, but they work very closely together… I hate to use the word routine, but it’s a pretty routine thing for all of our agencies to work with the Secret Service,” said Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police.
“It really depends on the location, what information is there, how much resources are devoted to it, and we work with them to deliver what the Secret Service asks for. But they are the leader in that security.”
A Pennsylvania State Police official said all resources requested by the Secret Service have been provided.
Timeline of terror: How the shooting unfolded
Video footage shows local police rushing to get the attention of people in the crowd who were shouting that the gunman had climbed onto the roof. In some videos shared on social media, officers appear to run toward the building as bystanders shout directions at the officer.
A source told CNN that Butler Township police were also on the scene of the shooting and even fired a weapon at the shooter.
President Joe Biden, for his part, said he feels safe with the Secret Service and has full confidence in the agency after the failed assassination attempt on Trump.
“I feel safe with the Secret Service,” Biden told NBC’s Lester Holt on Monday. “What we did see was the Secret Service that responded risked their lives … They were willing to give their lives for the president. The question is, should they have anticipated what was happening? Should they have done what they had to do to prevent this from happening? That’s a question — that’s an open question.”
Biden on Saturday also noted the role of local law enforcement in protecting the former president.
“A significant part of this has to do with domestic, local law enforcement. They play a major role,” the president said. “I’m not saying they weren’t competent. I’m just saying it’s a complicated process.”