(OPINION) Former Secret Service agent Richard Staropoli warned Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump could soon face an attack that his former agency is unprepared to prevent.
The president-elect faced two assassination attempts during the 2024 presidential campaign, including one where a 20-year-old named Thomas Matthew Crooks got within rifle range of Trump by climbing to the top of a building near his rally.
Starapoli, on “America Reports,” suggested Trump could face a threat “of a much bigger magnitude” than Crooks before he takes office in January.
“I’m not highly confident at all. The Secret Service that you see out there today is not the Secret Service of yesteryear. Somewhere along the line they’ve completely dropped the ball.
That testimony that you saw today was purely a smokescreen to cover up the shortcomings of a politically compromised agency. It should never have gotten to that point,” Starapoli said.
“This whole talk about all these drones and these UAVs, hey, that’s all great, but you need to get back to the basics. What made the Secret Service great was its ability to put human intelligence and manpower on the streets and effectively secure the environment to make it safe for the president of the United States. I don’t see that here.”
“As a matter of fact, I don’t think I’d be alone in saying that I certainly can see something happening between now and inauguration day,” he continued.
“And it’s not going to be some 20-year-old kid on the roof of a building that’s allowed to get within 100 yards. It’s going to be something of a much bigger magnitude and I don’t think the Secret Service is anywhere equipped to handle that situation.”
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe testified at a Thursday hearing held by the House’s Task Force on Trump Assassination Attempts. He got into a screaming match with Republican Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas over Rowe’s attendance at a 9/11 memorial event.
Fallon asked if Rowe was in charge of President Joe Biden’s detail at the event after Rowe asserted that the head of the president’s Secret Service detail was usually the “closest” to the president.
