Michael Ramirez: Guarding Less 07-24-24
From America's Premier Editorial Cartoonist
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle finally resigns.—Michael
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Ramirez Essay:
GUARDING LESS
Guarding Tess is one of my favorite movies. It stars Nicholas Cage as an ambitious young Secret Service agent, Doug Chesnic, assigned to protect former First Lady, Tess Carlisle, played brilliantly by Shirley MacLaine. Perhaps, she was a taxing, over-demanding First Lady who treated her protection detail as servants in a past life. The task of guarding Mrs. Carlisle is a job that no self-respecting, venturous Secret Service agent would want, a job usually reserved for substandard or ill-favored agents or those close to retirement.
The movie starts with agent Chesnic, thrilled to be coming to the conclusion of a mundane three-year post guarding a cranky First Lady, who he does not get along with, only to be told by the President that Mrs. Carlisle has personally demanded that he be reassigned for another “tour” with her. Stuck with the prospect of having to spend another three years delivering her breakfast and answering her beck and call seems more than he can bear… until the First Lady is kidnapped and held for ransom.
Even the most boring, tedious assignment can quickly elevate to a dramatic and alarming scenario in the course of protecting a high-profile person of national importance.
Fast forward to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
The first thing that I noticed as I watched events unfold, was the highest adjacent buildings to the rally stage were completely unprotected. The first question that came to mind was, how on earth was anyone allowed to access and perch on a relatively wide-open rooftop in close proximity of, with direct line of sight to, the stage where a former president and leading national candidate was speaking?
It seemed to be, both, the most obvious place for a shooter, and the most obvious place for Secret Service personnel to be positioned.
It was also obvious that this was a major failure of the Secret Service and the director, Kimberly Cheatle. Cheatle, initially blamed local officials, the lack of coordination with different law enforcement agencies, and even foolishly used the excuse of putting agents on a sloped roof was too dangerous…. The perceived safety of Secret Service personnel (the roof slope was not that steep) was more far important to her, than the safety of the former president they were assigned to protect… with their lives, if necessary!
God forbid an OSHA violation!
Cheatle had some serious questions to answer. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, rightfully demanded answers, and while Cheatle delivered very little, she did give one appropriate answer, her resignation.
As I wrote to a friend earlier, there is no excuse for not having a Secret Service agent posted on the highest adjacent building to the event stage.
Cheatle had no good answers, partly because of the ongoing investigation, but clearly, there are no justifiable excuses well beyond the obvious question of allowing that rooftop or those buildings to be unsecured. Questions about the lack of communication between law enforcement agencies, an identified suspicious person roaming about, allowing a drone to fly over a venue with a former president, why there wasn’t already heightened security in light of recent elevated threats from Iran and terrorist entities, and why so much time passed between when the shooter was first spotted and when he took his first shot.
Here’s a good one, when the initial threat was identified, why wasn’t the former President Trump immediately evacuated from the stage?
These are serious questions that need serious answers… but they should be asked by serious people in a serious forum. The clowns currently representing us in Congress constitute neither.
It is stupid for Congress to expect the Secret Service agency to reveal operating procedure in an open public forum. What were they expecting? A guidebook for future assassins?
This five-hour hearing in front of the Oversight Committee was a political exercise. If they wanted real answers, it should have been done behind closed doors. It is a shame we have more knuckleheads bent on grandstanding, and politicizing every aspect of everything, rather than serious people actually trying to fix things.
Cheatle’s resignation was a good first step. This failure in fundamental security revealed her incompetence.
It’s too bad some of the members of Congress can’t be held to the same standard. They prove their incompetence with every hearing and news conference. Their repeated performances putting politics before everything exposes their ineptitude.
Questions of the mental acuity of our leading candidates for Presidents have been leading the news of late. We should demand the same of Congress… or at least an IQ test.
In the movie, Guarding Tess, Secret Service agent Chesnic rescues Tess in the nick of time, by digging her out of the earthen bunker where the kidnappers had buried her.
In real life, unlike a made-for-Hollywood movie, there is never a guarantee of a happy ending. We were lucky this time.
A deeper look for answers in more secure environment that doesn’t reveal protective operating procedures, and does not aid and abet our enemies, might be the obvious next step. Holding government agencies accountable, and the people we appoint to head these agencies, and the people we elect to office to a much higher standard might be another step in the right direction.
Have a good week,
-m
-Michael Ramirez
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