Gallup: Secret Service's Job Rating Tumbles 23 Points to New Low

When the excuse from the Secret Service after the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump was that they weren't going to get up on that dangerous 1:10 pitch roof because somebody might slip off and get a boo-boo, they're going to get a degree of contempt, and rightly so. We should not be at a point where the Secret Service says that they are not going to monitor obvious places within easy rifle range because of risks that roofers assume every day.

Same thing with the second attempt. President Obama was famous for playing a lot of golf, and I'm very sure that the Secret Service made darned sure that the perimeters of golf courses were secured. We are talking about a few guys walking around the fence with alert dogs, really. If they wanted to tell the world that they would protect the President and candidates for the office only if they were liked by DC insiders, I don't know what they could do better to make that case.

A candidate and former presidents do not get the same protection as a sitting president. In 1992, I was involved in the security detail around a visit of Vice President Dan Quayle and the Secret Service protection was huge with snipers and everything. I also sat next to President Jimmy Carter on a commercial flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta. He had 2 Secret Service Agents with him who were armed. When he exited the plane, he exited onto the tarmac where a single black SUV was waiting with a single driver. I believe that Congress just passed a bill to increase the level of protection to candidates. So yes, most likely Obama as a sitting protection got more protection (given his current position), than Trump did as a former president and candidate.

...you also need to scale things based on the degree to which the man's opposition hates his guts. Many people disagree with Carter, but few hate his guts. You can't say the same about Trump. Moreover, even the Secret Service conceded a portion fo the matter when they used the matter of protecting "the football" as a reason for the lower security detail; they were for practical purposes admitting that yes, they ought to have secured the area vs. snipers.

And for that matter, Carter's interaction with you was a plane flight, not a speech, and from one end to the other, it was in a secured area in airports. That also makes a difference.

But in this case, the Secret Service really did step in it by not securing a building within easy rifle range of President Trump, a fact reflected by the resignation of the head of that agency. You don't just resign if you did nothing wrong, and the world knows it.

Where is secret service agent James West when you need him?