This thread is not going as planned.
Please keep your political/and-or/other thoughts to yourself.
If you have a question about USSS procedures and protocols, I will do my best to answer.
Thanks to all.
Might be too late but let me see if I can help keep it on track.
As an outsider who admittedly knows very little about law enforcement/USSS procedures, it seems like there was a major lapse here in security. Unfortunately, this has already led to the pushing of various conspiracy theories, but I personally choose not to attribute malice/conspiracy where a simple lapse or mistake would make more sense.
Firstly, do you believe that us laymen are correct in that there was some failure here on the part of the USSS? Secondly, what do you think might have created this lapse, and do you give credibility to those who have said they reported a suspicious person to law enforcement and were ignored?
Next, what is the reaction to something like this? I don’t believe there’s been an assassination attempt this dramatic in my lifetime, but I’m sure there are various threats that the USSS are handling with regularity that the public is never aware of.
I’d assume there will be a very quick and thorough investigation into pretty much every single element of this, from misses in procedure to whether or not the shooter had any help, etc. I would also assume that security would be majorly beefed up across the board in anticipation of retaliatory or continued violence.
Do you think the USSS will recommend that both candidates stop holding large rallies for the near future? Will this have a long lasting impact on the campaigns going forward?
Lastly, there will almost certainly be a congressional investigation into this that will be highly, highly politicized and will probably act more as political theater than a legitimate investigation. What kind of training or prep work do USSS agents get in these situations where they’re likely to get hauled in front of congress and asked a bunch of questions by partisans trying to create a controversial sound bite?
Thanks for your willingness to have these conversations!