good afternoon everyone so in today's hyperdynamic threat environment the mission of the Secret Service is clear we cannot afford to fail after reviewing the planning event details and coordination with partner agencies regarding the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump on July 13th our mission Assurance review is nearing its completion as I've said this was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service it's important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like
this again the findings of the mission Assurance review have prompted the Secret Service to move into the accountability phase of this process the office of professional responsibility and the office of Integrity are reviewing the findings and as a result of these failures what has become clear to me is we need a shift in Paradigm and how we conduct our protective operations as was demonstrated on Sunday in West Palm Beach the threat level is evolving and requires this paradigm shift but here are some of the findings from this Mission Assurance review with respect to command and
control of the site in Butler Pennsylvania the secret service has the main responsibility of building the site plan we cannot abdicate or defer our responsibilities to others Advanced team Personnel have an obligation to ensure that each site meets the protective requirements and principles of Secret Service methodologies the Secret Service did not give clear guidance or direction to our local law enforcement Partners there were communication deficiencies between law enforcement Personnel at the site for example the Secret Service did not collocate its security room with local law enforcement there was an over Reliance on mobile devices resulting
in information being siloed for example at approximately 1810 local time Secret Service informed Personnel that local police were addressing an issue at the 3:00 of the Outer Perimeter at approximately 1810 local time via phone call the Secret Service security room calls the counter sniper response agent reporting an individual on the roof of the AGR building that vital piece of information was not relayed over the Secret Service radio network at approximately 1810 and 54 seconds verified through body camera footage of local Law Enforcement Officers confront the as salent on the roof of the AGR building at
181105 by a phone call the site agent calls the assistant site agent to find out what exactly is going on at the 3:00 and during that call shots ring out at 18132 verified through body camera footage the first series of shots are fired by the as salent at 18136 again verified through body camera footage a second series of shots are fired by the as salent at 1811 47 through body camera footage secret service counter snipers neutralized the threat with respect to diligence line of sight issues were acknowledged but not properly mitigated issues were encountered the
day of the visit with respect to Lin of sight concerns but they were not escalated to supervisors while some members of the advanced team were very diligent there was complacency on the part of others that led to a breach of security protocols with respect to accountability the mission Assurance review has identified deficiencies in the advanced planning and its implementation by Secret Service Personnel these employees will be held accountable and this agency has among the most robust table of penalties in the entirety of the federal government and these penalties will be administered according to our disciplinary
process due to Federal Regulations I cannot get into Personnel matters as they are proceeding with respect to a paradigm shift we're at a pivotal moment in the history of the Secret Service and at a pivotal moment in the history of our country and I've directed that the Secret Service embark on a significant paradigm shift that will redefine how we conduct protective operations what occurred on Sunday demonstrates that the threat environment in which the service operates is tremendous and under a constant threat and we've been in this heightened and increasingly Dynamic threat environment since July 13th
this reality has necess has necessitated that we significantly increase our protective footprint and we've already begun to do so following the events of July 13th this increased operational Tempo requires additional resources to not only account for costs being incurred today but ensure that we have the tools the technology and Personnel needed to meet these new requirements and execute our mission going forward the paradigm shift will be a driving force to move the Secret Service from a state of reaction to a state of Readiness and the vision is for the Secret Service to be more agile
with the ability to escalate protection to the highest levels for numerous protees for undetermined periods of time but in order to do this we need additional personnel technical assets and equipment for the sustainment of immediate and future needs our Personnel have been in a state of hypervigilance following July 13th we are certainly working our people hard and I've used this term publicly redlining this cannot be about working our people harder so with respect to changes the workforce the American public they can expect changes in our processes for advances there will be an increased use of
Technology not only to assist in Communications but also situational awareness when we're doing our protective Mission there will be organizational changes for example I've already directed the creation of an applied research and development section to field new technologies leverage the research of other government agencies and calibrate our technical security assets to stay ahead of threat vect and Technical collection impacting Secret Service equities this will be an iterative process meaning it will be constantly evaluated validated updated and evolving we cannot be stagnant and we must be weaned off the Reliance of Partners within DHS to assist
us during High operational times the Secret Service should be self-reliant outside of national special security events however we recognize that we will always need assistance from our partners within the Department of Homeland Security and our partners at the Department of Defense and I want to take this moment now also to thank you to thank our Workforce I want to conclude by thanking the men and women of the Secret Service who are working tirelessly this summer we experienced an unprecedented operational tempo for our agency within a 45-day period the Secret Service successfully implemented our operational security
planning at three National special security events the NATO Summit the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention we successfully protected both the presidential debate in Philadelphia and multiple protective visits commemorating the anniversary of the September 11th in taxs all of this took place while protecting major party candidates on the campaign Trail this High operational Tempo continues as the Secret Service prepares for the United Nations General Assembly next week where we expect to protect more than 140 visiting world leaders and heads of state I am proud of all that we've accomplished in a very difficult
and tumultuous time for the agency and I recognize and thank the men and women of the Secret Service and their families for continuing to make great sacrifices in support of our enduring Mission and with that I will take questions all of the attention and scrutiny related to these events sir given all the attention and scrutiny related to these events do you believe your highest level protectees will now need to campaign differently in how they organize their events and in how they live their daily lives things like trips to golf courses or recreational time will they
have to live differently in order to be safe well ultimately Kelly this is It's the responsibility of the Secret Service to make sure that we provide a secure environment for our protectees um we want them to make sure that they can live their lives with some type of normaly but they must do so with us providing the highest levels of protection which we have been doing since July 13th and so it's ultimately our responsibility to make sure that wherever our protectees go we are creating a safe environment and that comes back to us being able
to use our methodologies to use our redundancy our systems that we have in place to create those secure environments uh I up outdoor events that kind of thing so since July 13th uh we we have been securing successfully uh outdoor events and what you're seeing is an increased use of assets increased use of uh of ballistic glass uh so we certainly make sure that when we're uh when they are out there and an outdoor venue that we are using our protective methodologies to create that safe environment hello director thank you for taking the time um
could you uh could you exp uh just kind of go into a bit more detail about the conversations you had with Trump campaign staff about the selection of the butler site the report says that the Secret Service agents saw it as a challenge and the staff wanted to to have the rally there um did did the did the staff go against your recommendation can you speak to exactly what was said and and what what the outcome was so uh listen the staff uh chooses a site uh and uh ultimately it's on the Secret Service to
secure it so uh when the site was selected uh the advanced team went about uh identifying uh areas of concern the AGR building was one of those uh uh hazards that was identified uh but let me just be clear Maria ultimately it is the secret Services responsibility to secure a site uh we certainly have conversations and it doesn't matter whether it's a campaign staff or White House staff we have conversations uh and we have very good working relationships with those staffs uh but ultimately it is the secret Services responsibility to secure a site thas director
thank you based on your review and Analysis what is the reason what's the best explanation for why there was not law enforcement Personnel covering the roof physically on the roof itself or making sure someone could not uh get on top of the roof and the follow-up question would be how disappointed are you in what you described as uh deficiencies in diligence sure so ultimately Pi we have to be very direct and and clear when we're talking to our state and local part uh counterparts with respect to Butler I think uh what the mission Assurance review
has identified is that there was that lack of clarity uh and uh I can tell you since July 13th when I've been out on the road and I've watched uh field offices and I gave guidance uh upon becoming uh the acting director to the field we have to be very clear when we're talking to our state and local Partners we value those relationships with them we need them uh to be assisting us and be shoulder-to-shoulder with us uh and it appears that there was that lack of clarity with respect to uh with respect to Butler
and again with your followup here so there was a lack of clarity that that route should be secure period full stop there was a discussion about how this the roof uh was going to be secured and I think what it came back to is we should have challenged what that how that mechanism uh was was being implemented meaning we should have been more direct we H we cannot be too we cannot be overly deferential to State and local law enforcement we ultimately it's our responsibility and so we just have to be very clear when we're
asking them for support they want to help us and what we found is that in this they they they in the mission Assurance interviews it it it became apparent that uh in comparison to Prior visits to that area there was one prior visit in 2020 that there was a lack of of assertion uh with respect to what exactly State and locals would have to require or would be required to support that that advance the second question simply how disappointed are you when you see that as the report states that some Personnel did not follow Secret
Service protocols well I'm not going to get into into employee uh disciplinary matters but what I can tell you is the men and women of the Secret Service are dedicated professionals um and so while July 13th is is a failure um we're not proud of it but we certainly have been rising to this moment the the men and women in the field are rising to this moment they are working tirelessly to make sure that the people we protect are safe and so uh I I will never be disappointed in our folks I am proud of
this agency I am proud of our people hi thanks so much for doing this um on the question of the AGR buildings is there a process that's standard for the day of the event that somebody from the Secret Service looks around and makes sure all of the assets are where they are and since the roof of the AGR building was such a glaring Omission why didn't anybody raise that issue at the time or secondly in the security room look and say I don't see any local police in here how are we going to hear them
right and I think that was a failure to challenge our assumptions the assumption that local police were going to have more of a presence in that AGR building uh getting back to your question there is uh that uh diligence that has to be done by the side agents to make sure that hey all of the assets are in place and so there was an assumption that they had it covered but there clearly was not that followup to make sure but is there a process that you look around and like a punch list and check it
off and it is part of our the principles of our advance and our and our protective methodologies okay and secondly just to follow up on the campaign question you said it's ultimately the secret Services responsibility so when there's um a disagreement between the campaign and the Secret Service on a security issue who has the last word so it's not about disagreement it's about a negotiation they certainly don't want uh any harm to come to their principle and so they respect us and so usually what it it boils down to is escalating it up to a
supervisor and a senior staff level what I can tell you is that if there were discrepancies and there were uh regarding how the site was supposed to have been secured how supervisors were briefed uh and uh supervisors reported in their mission Assurance interviews that they envisioned um harder assets to be able to secure that line line of sight to be able to mitigate anything that might have been looking in or would have created uh an an openness on the uh on the site of the Butler Farm Show and so on the morning of if there
were those deficiencies they were never escalated up to the supervisors to be able to resolve David spongeb thank you sir um I have two questions they're related the first is looking forward the house just voted within the last couple of hours unanimously uh from those that were present in the chamber to give presidential candidates the exact same Secret Service protection as sitting presidents my first question is can you handle that uh we've been doing that since July 13th David so what is the purpose of the bill uh I I don't know you'd have to ask
members of Congress that what I can tell you is that uh when I say the highest levels of Secret Service protection the former president is getting tatical assets uh he's getting everything that the former president uh uh uh I'm sorry that the current president has with respect to Secret Service assets and that was my second question can you explain that President former president Trump is getting the same protection as President Biden and vice president Harris because a lot of members of Congress on Capitol Hill are skeptical about that there's a lot of talks saying clearly
he didn't have the same protection because if he did the golf course would have been secure in West Palm Beach can you tell people what's going on with that so with respect to West Palm Beach what I can tell you without getting into our ttps our techniques our tactics our procedures what I can tell you is that uh on that day there were um counter sniper elements that were present uh with the former president on the golf course in proximity there was an entire counter assault team that was there in proximity there was also a
jump team in proximity the advanced agent uh who was part of the first element whose goal was to sweep ahead did his job that young man is a very young agent early in his career his vigilance his reaction is exactly how we trained and exactly what we want our Personnel to do he identified a threat an individual with a long gun and he made Swift decisions and took a swift action to be able to mitigate that no shot was fired at the former president the former president was not exposed to where he was on the
golf course and what I've said and I said this Monday that the procedures work the redundancies work so that high level of protection is working CBS acting director thank you very much for doing this um two questions just one on West Palm Beach the busy public road that is adjacent to that sixth hole where the suspect was hiding is a well-known blind spot on that specific golf course why did no one within the US Secret Service sweep behind that fence line for threats uh they were sweeping they were sweeping ahead Nicole so what I just
explained is that the that element that lead element was going ahead sweeping but was there anyone behind the fence where the road was sweeping there to see if anyone was in the bushes having been there and seen the Vantage Point whether they were on the public side or the or the private side the bottom line is the individual was detected um on Butler you testified before Congress that all assets requested for the butler rally by Trump's detail were approved but there are Secret Service assets that may have prevented the tragedy on July 13th most notably
a counter Advanced team that would have surveyed the site ahead of time or enhanced uh counter drone protection uh that might have prevented the tragedy were those specific assets requested by Trump's detail if they were were they denied and if they weren't why weren't they requested so the counter assault team had an element that was there that had embedded with local law enforcement so we had tactical elements uh in place uh the counter assault uh uh team leader that day had been in direct contact in the days leading up to uh July 13th with those
tactical elements but just to be clear did the Trump detail ask for any additional resources that were denied by the Secret Service so uh based on the asset based on the information I have right now uh the asset request all of those assets that were asked for uh were uh uh were approved uh and so what we're looking at now is were there any additional ones that came in through other channels uh so but what I can tell you uh based on the information I have now the assets were approved two questions um when we're
talking about Florida and the idea that this was the Secret Service working as it should does this mean that no security will change for Trump when he goes golfing again well I think what we try to do Holmes after every incident we we look at it what what could we have done better we look at everything thing uh and it doesn't matter whether there's a critical incident that occurs uh so we are looking and we're re-evaluating to look at do we need I've had conversations with uh Sheriff Bradshaw in palmach County uh and so I
will leave it to the local field office to to carry on those conversations about making changes um that's where I'll leave that and then on on Butler if we can drill down on the specific timeline a little bit at 608 we know that a local radio call went out that a man was on the roof now my understanding is that the state police were in a separate area with locals and were their job was to communicate any local chatter to the Secret Service why was that 608 radio call not communicated to Secret Service or or
was it by the state police so the information I have is that we had a we had a member of the Pennsylvania State Police in our security room and that's what Spurs that phone call to the counter sniper response agent at 1810 and so the state police never communicated a local radio call at 608 I'm saying is that the Personnel that was in the security room passed that information and that triggers the 1810 phone call okay go to Rebecca beach with the hill hi I know Congress has sounded a little resistant lately in terms of
what it might do um for funding for the Secret Service given the sort of paradigm shift that you've laid out today I'm curious what you'll be looking for from Congress and sort of what you're seeking from lawmakers to carry that out uh we've been we've been briefing uh we've been providing information uh right now I I I do think that uh and you know Congress has questions we're responding to those questions and and providing them information but at the end of the day I think everybody wants a strong Secret Service and that's what I'm working
towards that's what members are working towards and so we'll continue to have those conversations we'll go to Claudia with Univision hi thank you so much for doing this um republicans in Congress they want the same level of security uh than the president for the candidates how realistic is really that can you be more specific on that I know you ask you uh answer that question but can you just can a candidate have the same level of security of a seting president and also what changes are we expecting in the security um area after your you
know where most of the incidents happened so so how I approach that Claudia is this that the way the Secret Service is structured the president of the United States has the highest level of protection of any world leader period the end the number of assets that the Secret Service provides and the Department of Defense provides is at the highest levels those same highest levels with respect to the Secret Service are being provided to the former president's detail and so when it comes to maintaining this where we are at right now is we have finite resources
the way we are structured with some of our classified assets with some of our Personnel president we've now expanded that to include the former president and so while we can do this it is certainly we are burning through a lot of assets and resources and that's the argument that we've been trying to show this isn't this isn't some pie in the sky trying to say hey we want we want this now we are not capitalizing on a crisis we are showing the math we have finite resources and we are stretching those resources to their maximum
right now which is going to require us to replace these assets it's going to require us to also adjust to look at this and evaluate that if we have to do this again or do it because of some other situation that we have no other control of we have to be able to sustain that for an indefinite period of time and so I'm hopeful and I am uh certainly uh engaged in these in these discussions and I feel like at the end we will get there because we have no other choice what changes are you
going to make outside of the secure area that zone where everything happens the the Outer Perimeter so I think that's where we we have to be very direct and clear with our state and local Partners uh as to what we're asking of them Joe thank you acting director I've got two questions the first uh it's our understanding it takes anywhere from four to 10 years for an agent to go through the training that rises them up to a presidential detail level you've described a Manpower issue given that do you think that training time frame might
change so you can expedite getting more officers to a presidential detail should you need that so we're not going to drop standards Joe we we have not dropped standards uh you do need to develop those agents and uh when agents start we don't you cannot put them on the highest level protection uh protecting and protect E when they when they graduate from our training facility they go to a field they do advances they do criminal investigations the importance of having that that what we call phase one that's where those agents that are doing Federal investigations
that are interfacing with local law enforcement those are skills that they learn analytic skills how to conduct a federal investigation how to interact with a US attorney how to interact with a state or local agency and all the while they're doing that they're also popping in and out doing protection whether they're doing it in New York City for United Nations General Assembly or they're doing in advance for a visiting head of state or world leader that comes into their field office District that's where they cultivate and sharpen those skills and it will take them up
until probably 40 year four years ideally that sweet spot is between the fourth and fifth year where we send them off to a permanent detail that that's where we are getting to uh uh as far as the career path uh and so it's a it's critically important that we make sure that we still develop people you it is being on the presidential protective division or the vice presidential detail it is a very very high pressure situation it requires a lot of maturity it requires decisionmaking analytic skills and the ability to problem solve and it takes
time to develop those skills even though we've put you through training the more seasoning you have the field the better off you're going to be as far as being a protection agent so so then how do you address the Manpower issue quickly so right now we are we've had robust hiring uh this year by by the time we close out the fiscal year we're going to hire more than 400 special agents this year uh right now uh looks like we're going to have a net gain in the hundreds triple digit net gains something that we
have not seen uh in a little while I can tell you that uh applications right now are at an all-time high for for applicants seeking employment with the United States Secret Service so I do believe that we are going to meet this we have no choice we have the 2028 Summer Olympics ahead of us in Los Angeles the secret service will be responsible for the security planning of that that is going to require tremendous amount of personnel tremendous amount of resources and a tremendous amount of collaboration with state and local and other Federal Partners we
are going to get there we are getting there now we have filled all of our training classes going into uh this next fiscal year so we're getting there we have turned the corner we're showing those metrics to Congress and I think that's the question that they've had and we are going to show them that we can deliver on this and just second question is the former president Trump has said that he is going to the Alabama Georgia football game this weekend are those kinds of events particularly concerning given he could be around tens if not
hundreds of thousands of people so I I'm not going to comment on protect these schedules what I'll tell you is that each event is complex and each Advance is different uh and those Advanced teams they know that what they have to do to uh to make a secure environment for our protectees thank you for doing this uh you said we were now moving into the accountability phase of this Butler investigation you did not want to discuss names of who might be punished so to speak but can you give us more detail at least um maybe
how many people would face uh punishment or repercussion for what happened in Butler at what levels of the organization those people represent and what level of punishment again they may face so again I I can't comment on on this this is a a Personnel matter that is still pending what I will tell you is that I have not asked for anybody to retire uh that was not uh I know some of that was reported that is false uh and with respect to the disciplinary process it will be handled in accordance with our table of penalties
that will be led by the office of integrity in coordination with our office of professional responsibility and then one followup as well um all this talk about making things more robust more agents in the field this type of thing this is not the first presidential election you guys have had to secure so why weren't all those moves put in place prior to this year's election so uh the former president uh has had uh robust security around him uh since he left office more robust than uh prior former presidents thank you acting director roow Jackson Richmond
Epoch times uh has security been adjusted or increased following the Florida attempted assassination attempt after all according to Congressman Matt Gates a DHS official has warned that there are five assassination teams targeting former president Trump the official warned that there isn't enough protection to deal with that level threat are you aware of this assessment and what is the Secret Service doing to respond so I will tell you as I as I mentioned earlier we of course are evaluating uh coming out of West Palm Beach and we're having those conversations with State and locals uh I'm
not going to talk about unnamed sourcing or or the report you uh you mentioned I'm not familiar with that and local law enforcement doesn't have the same training that Secret Service agents do will the Secret Service be training local law enforcement ahead of events as to to prevent another Butler so right now we are uh we're actually having some very good discussions with the federal law enforcement training center uh about developing a curriculum to assist our state and local partners and you know what I'll what I'll say is some of the things that we've been
talking about um our state and local Partners while and I know people have said they're not trained like the Secret Service men and women of law enforcement protect their communities every day um they they understand how to handle a crisis situation they understand how to respond to a a violent felony in progress uh they know what their jobs are we certainly when we uh ask them and enlist their assistance uh you know we're relying on them uh so I think it's important that we always try to give back to them whether it's through training or
forensic support or investigative support and so one of the things that we're contemplating now is partnering with the federal law enforcement training center to develop not only a law enforcement guide but also develop a training curriculum with through fety with a Cadre of Secret Service Personnel to be able to train them in the principles of advance and that will only help them when dignitaries come to their District or perhaps if they're protecting a mayor or a locally elected official so we're all about giving back to them next month we're going to unveil a guide on
uh how to come up with a multidisiplinary threat assessment team uh that's going to be led by our national threat Assessment Center so we are very very in tune with what our state and local Partners uh how they support us and we are con L evaluating what we can do to not only bolster those relationships but give back to them thank you s um wow you guys have covered a lot of questions um I guess I would just ask um guys I don't know you guys have really covered it I'm sorry I'm going to I'm
going to I'm going to give my question you only get one Rea with the associated I'm going to go back to the line of sight issues and the roof issues can you just lay out very clearly who was responsible for security on those roofs was it the locals what was the plan and how did it fail and then also secondly you keep talking about a paradigm shift but what what does that mean can you kind of detail what you mean by that so uh with respect to the uh the AGR building and that's where you're
going for right uh when we construct a site uh not only are we worried about um uh what you know who can get into a site but also who can look into that site so there should have been clear Direction about what we needed done at the AGR building um that that was discussed during the advance but I think there was a lack of follow-through based on what I'm based on the information I have now and what I'm seeing uh there should have been better follow through on in some aspects of that about access control
to that property about access control to the collateral property of the AGR building and so it was about not giving the state and locals clearer Direction on what we needed done uh with respect to the Paradigm Shift uh this is about uh looking at the organization holistically uh for example the communications issue Communications were problematic um and I think what where I'm looking at is uh we need to have communications that are more closely aligned to the operations and so coming of July 13th uh what I've seen and the direction I gave is we have
to be very uh we have to be very efficient with where we're putting our security rooms recently I was on a visit where again similar to Butler where there was a unified command post uh just as there was in Butler there was one at this location where not only did you have emergency uh services in in so far as U uh fire Life Safety but you had Emergency Management officials you had the highway patrol and the State Police in that room you had local law enforcement in that room you had Secret Service agents in that
room monitoring frequencies and listening to what was going on on those state and local networks in addition to that the locals were flying a drone in proximity to the site that drone feed was being beamed into that unified command post and our agents had total domain awareness about what was going on also they had traffic cams they were able to pipe in those traffic cams into that UniFi command post that is the model by which our field they have taken this to heart and those special agents in the field are now having those conversations and
they are directing exactly what we need and they're posting our people exactly where we need to be so that when our protectees are in a site we have total awareness of what's going on around us and we have total awareness of what's being communicated on those local networks and if I could just follow up with one question down in um West Palm Beach the on the evening of the attempted assassination down there the um local Chief I believe was Bradshaw had said that during when Trump was President there would have been a lot more security
around the per perimeter but basically now the Secret Service does the best that they can can you but you've said that he has got the highest levels of security now I mean can you can compare and contrast like is it the same now as he would have been getting while he was the sitting president so what I'll say is the the former president has the highest levels of Secret Service protection and I think uh the sheriff actually went back and clarified his statement so I would point you to that I I believe he did did
that on Monday thank you director um wanted to ask about um Sunday's incident as well um is it your view I know you've talked about the procedures working as intended is it your view that there wasn't any type of security lapse that allowed that armed individual to get within a few hundred yards of the former president well I can tell you is we're looking at it uh from an after Action Report uh looking at reviewing that uh but what I think it goes to show is that uh that's why we have trip wires that's why
we have systems out there that's why we have redundancies built into our protective model uh and that's what was demonstrated uh on Sunday and and in terms of of the report I I mean what specifically will be different on the ground now for instance are you you know mandating that command posts have both Secret Service and local law enforcement in them will law enforcement have to communicate on the same frequencies are there any sort of practical changes that that you've made that are in effect you know based on the report yeah so what security room
location right being local law enforcement is right uh the broad use of technical security assets ballistic glass uh leveraging uh Partnerships with the Department of Defense to be able to move materials move Personnel uh across the country in support of a nominee uh so those are things that uh We've we've been doing post July 14th and those are things that are going to probably be in existence and perpetuity moving forward um I had a I had also had a question about Florida uh can you say whether there's any indication that this suspect might have surveilled
golf courses any time before Sunday or what led him to choose that day to be there for maybe 12 hours so it's an active investigation so I would refer you to the FBI for that and can you say anything more about golf courses are sprawling open places anything that would be publicly visible that you could say here is how we are beefing up protection when a protecte is on a golf course so again our what I've said and I I'll continue to do this and I have to be very mindful of our of our uh
techniques our tactics and our procedures it is probably not good to continuously not only talk about Secret Service procedures because we're telegraphing to adversaries we're telegraphing to people who probably would intend to do harm to our protectees but what I will tell you is that our model our protective model consists of multiple layers and redundancies the outer the middle the inner those are the layers and then we have redundancies built into that and so with respect to golf courses or any open venue we apply those methodologies Ellen Kilmer with Bloomberg will be next thank director
um with regard to your conversation uh your conversations on Capitol Hill can you talk about um for resources do you need to have a specific dollar amount included in an upcoming CR to make things work or would the anomaly language that the administration had previously requested is that is that something you can live with I I I'm not going to get into specifics because we're we're having those conversations and out of respect for the confidentiality of those discussions I I'm not going to disclose a number what I'll tell you is that we have we've made
several presentations we're working at the staff level uh and uh we're having those conversations and they are ongoing and related to that you mentioned earlier you want the Secret Service to uh wean itself from relying on other components of DHS um in its protective mission is that contingent on getting those additional resources either right now or at some point in the Appropriations process well I I don't want to rule out that we'll never have to enlist the assistance of others through you know requests for assistance and and we do those memorandums uh and we did
that back um for several presidential uh campaign Cycles but I think the importance here is U we have to be able to to at a moment's notice surge people to where they need to go and if we're going to be uh having to mitigate and that's what we do we're in the risk mitigation business we are not in the risk elimination business and so we have to be able to have the Personnel the assets and be able to spread those out for an definite period of time in the event that another situation a geopolitical conflict
or some other tension requires us to do sohy thank you um you've addressed the golf course um incident in great detail but I just want to ask are you fully satisfied with the way the Secret Service managed the Florida incident on the golf course or would you change anything can you answer the question that way I'd say based on the information I have right now uh I i' say that that that uh that situation was managed uh according to our training uh you know those uh as soon as it was um as soon as our
agent discovered the individual took Swift action uh and uh took steps to neutralize that threat immediately upon doing so uh he communicated over the radio uh there was a communication of shots fired uh which immediately not only did our uh Personnel assigned to the close protection of the president of the former president hear the shots they immediately went into action the counter assault team went into action the counter snipers went into action uh supervisors and shift personel immediately evacuated the president took the most expedient route to where he needed to shelter in place he had
ballistic Pro protection around him they sheltered in place until they could determine was this just the first wave of an attack immediately local law enforcement assets responded to the scene local tactical assets that were partnered with their counter assault team were also present immediately responded and so that barrier those layers of protection those redundancies the redundancy was the agent that first discovered followed by another set of agents that also set up that middle perimeter around the shift that was evacuating and so in the case of of West Palm Beach based on the information I have
now and again we will review it uh it appears that those agents those supervisors made Swift decisions and made correct decisions Landers scrips thank you hi acting director I I want to drill down on this issue of resources you sent a letter to Senator Murphy and to Senator Britt on September 5th and it became public and it said in the letter you wrote We do not believe that the security failures of July 13th 2024 was the result of a lack of resources I'm hearing you talk over and over again and it says here at the
bottom of this um press release you guys have today the agency must increase its protective footprint including Personnel technical assets and Equipment how do you square those two things how do you ask Congress for more money when you yourself have determined that what happened on January or July 13th was not a lack of resources so how I square with it is is is as follows uh following July 13th uh we immediately took steps to elevate the vice president the former president to the highest levels of Secret Service protection uh we also took steps to elevate
uh the protection of Senator Vance and eventually Governor walls to high levels of Secret Service protection and what I was talking about earlier is the way we are structured and I go back to this the president of the United States has is the most highly protected individual on the face of the world uh that is how the Secret Service is built that is what we are primarily focused on and then once you have those assets and resources they are also committed to the vice president so how I Square this is as follows following July 13th
when now we are in because of this hyperdynamic uh threat and the operational environment at which we find ourselves in we only have so much uh of those assets to go around and so while we are providing them to the former president we are providing them to the president to the vice president to other protectees and so at this point what I'm telling Congress is we can do this and we will do this but there has to be a replacement there has to be life cycle replacement on this there has to be if we're going
to be called upon to do this again or do this now because the threat is not weaning the threat is not going to evaporate anytime soon and so we have to be prepared for this and that is the argument that we have been making and we're we're we have certainly made some inroads and we're having these productive conversations with The Hil can I just ask you also will the Secret Service have the resources to protect the capital on January 6 I know that's now been designated the agency will be leading the protective services detail for
that day you're describing protecting all these different people right now how will January 6th play out so the January 6 proceedings were designated a national special security event we are the lead security planner uh for that but again we have great Partnerships with all the law enforcement agencies in in Washington DC and most notably the US capital police which are our partners when we do the state of the union or when we do any event at the capital that rises to a national special security event like the state of the union or state funeral so
so you feel confident you will have the Personnel technical assets and equipment you need for that day we will have what we need last question go um do you think that by Congress legislating the protective uh detail uh regulations do you think that is helpful in terms of being able to staff up or staff down um the agency when you need so I I have not I have not done an analysis of the the of the of the legislation I assume it's it's pretty direct uh but look uh as I stated I'm sure Congress wants
to make sure that the Secret Service is strong um I I don't know the the intentions behind uh this piece of legislation but what I I I'll just point back to coming out of Butler coming out of July 13th we've been providing the highest levels of Secret Service protection to the former president thank you all right thank you everyone thank you sir
