Inside the strain challenging the US Secret Service

The second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in as many months has underscored the strain that’s been placed on the US Secret Service during both a busy campaign season and what its acting director refers to as an “unprecedented and hyper-dynamic threat environment.”

The second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in as many months has underscored the strain that’s been placed on the US Secret Service during both a busy campaign season and what its acting director refers to as an “unprecedented and hyper-dynamic threat environment.” “Everyone is focused on the failures of that day,” one former agent said about the Butler, Pennsylvania, attempt. “And what I would submit is the failures of July 13, as well as most recently in Florida, (are) symptomatic of a deeper-rooted problem within the Secret Service,” said the former agent, who departed in March. CNN spoke to nearly a dozen current and former agents who describe a workplace mired in inefficient, longstanding procedures and cultural dysfunction. While the reputation of the US Secret Service is one of precision, vigilance and security, the reality is more complicated – a high-stress, high-intensity workplace beset by management and logistical issues. That was the case for a group of senior US Secret Service agents assigned to travel to San Francisco to help secure the perimeter of the site of a recent summit for Asia-Pacific leaders and President Joe Biden. One of those agents, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told CNN that the two-person team in charge of the summit location had a combined four years of field experience, translating on the ground to poor communication and a mishandling of resources. When the agents arrived, there was no pre-event briefing, there was no plan, there were no directions to where the agent was supposed to stand. And there was minimal communication until it was over.