WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional task force investigating the attempts to kill Donald Trump during his presidential campaign is recommending changes to the Secret Service, including protecting fewer foreign leaders during the height of election season and considering moving the agency out of the Homeland Security Department.
The 180-page report by the bipartisan task force released Tuesday is one of the most detailed looks so far into the July assassination attempt against Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania and a second attempt in Florida two months later.
Like the series of other investigations and reports, the task force railed at the agency tasked with protecting the top echelon of America’s democratic leaders.
“The events of July 13, 2024, were tragic and preventable, and the litany of related security failures are unacceptable,” the authors wrote. “The Secret Service’s zero fail mission allows no margin for error, let alone for the many errors described in this report.”
In the July shooting, a gunman opened fire from the roof of a nearby building, wounding Trump in the ear, killing one rallygoer and wounding two others. He was killed by a countersniper.
In another assassination attempt in September, a gunman waited for hours for Trump to appear at his golf course in Florida, but a Secret Service agent thwarted the attack by spotting the firearm poking through some bushes.
Here are the highlights of the new report and its recommendations:
Reducing the number of people protected — specifically foreign leaders
The report’s authors noted that the number of people the agency is tasked with protecting has “greatly expanded.” At the same time, the presidential campaign season is getting longer and more intense.
The agency is also tasked with protecting foreign dignitaries during the U.N. General Assembly, when heads of state and government flood into New York. That event happens every September, which comes at the “height of campaign season,” the report noted, adding to the agency’s staffing crunch.
“Congress, DHS, and the USSS should jointly consider the protective role the USSS plays for foreign leaders and consider whether such duties can be transferred or abrogated in order to focus on the USSS’s primary duty: to protect the President and other critical U.S. leaders,” the report said.