My two experiences with presidential security

The assassination attempt on the life of former President Trump may go down as one of the worst failures of the Secret Service our country has seen.

There is an ongoing investigation, but I am skeptical that it will answer the primary question of how someone so suspicious could have been allowed to roam the grounds for so long with no intervention by anyone until he fired several times at Trump.

I am relaying two experiences I had with presidential security when I was a reporter at the Dothan Eagle.

I am relaying the second experience first.

Barack Obama came to the Panhandle in August of 2010. I snapped the photo above during his speech, so I was pretty close.

We had to be pre-cleared before the event. We sent in the information asked of us and were required to arrive several hours before the scheduled event. When we arrived, plenty of media members were already in the screening line.

Those in line had already surrendered their bags and all of their equipment, which were screened and then placed in piles for dogs to sniff for explosives.

Then it began to rain. It wasn’t a downpour, but it was fairly steady. I understood then that we were going to get very wet since the screening line moved pretty slowly. We would have ample opportunity to dry, however, since it was still about five hours before the scheduled event.

Then a funny thing happened. Security at the front of the screening line began to wave us through without the intense screening that had taken place previously. Our equipment was not scrutinized anywhere near the extent it was for those in front of us before it started raining.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. We were ushered quickly inside. The president would be speaking outdoors, just a short walk away from our holding building. My memory is still fuzzy so I’m not sure how many were ushered through with practically no screening, but my best guess is 50.

The event took place a few hours later. Most of the press was set up less than 100 feet from the president.

I couldn’t believe something like a simple rain would cause such a collapse of the screening process.

I’m not sure who was in charge of screening. My initial thought was the FBI, but it was probably the Secret Service. Nonetheless, upon my return, I found the general email link on the FBI website and detailed my experience and concern in an email. No one followed up.

My first experience came in the wake of the fatal Enterprise tornado of 2007. President George W. Bush toured the damage and visited with the victims’ families.

Again, we were invited to apply for a credential to be pre-cleared and included in the official press contingent. We provided the required information and were told to be at Dothan Regional Airport prior to the President’s arrival to be included in the motorcade to Enterprise.

We went through screening and waited patiently for the president to arrive. When he did, security began assembling the motorcade. That’s when they found out that someone in some office had not sent all the paperwork for all the press credentials, including ours.

There was a time crunch as the president’s motorcade had been practically assembled, with the exception of some of the local media. The bottom line for us was access or no access.

Someone had to make a decision, so a man in a suit motioned for us to come along. We hopped in a vehicle near the rear of the motorcade and joined the rest of the national press in Enterprise for the tour. I was within 15 feet of the president as he toured some of the damage.

This experience did not appear to be as serious as the Obama Panhandle experience. We had been thoroughly screened for weapons, and the decision to allow us through did not appear to put the president in danger. It was, however, a breach of protocol.

I would have been very disappointed if I had not been able to be a part of the coverage that day. However, all paperwork for all people in a motorcade or press contingent should be exactly where it is supposed to be.

I relay these two experiences because it is easy to assume that presidential security is always completely buttoned up. Apparently that’s not the case, considering my only two experiences with it resulted in obvious holes.

Maybe the FBI investigation of the Butler failure will surprise me and yield some interesting information. Either way, what needs to happen is a comprehensive review of all Secret Service security operations. I bet we’ll find all kinds of breaches similar to the ones I experienced.