OKC Standard

Today, U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) joined his Senate Republican colleagues for a press conference to discuss the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and FBI’s failures that led to the attempted assassination of President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Mullin questioned the logistical oversights that led to this event and called for transparency from the USSS to regain the trust of the American people.

Senator Mullin emphasized several key points during his remarks:

“There are several questions that have to be answered…They are really simple. Who was the AIC? Agent in Charge. What SOPs are they using? Standard operating procedures. Who set the perimeters up? Where were the perimeters? What was the initial plan? Was the initial plan detailed out? Did they walk it? How many meetings did they have with local law enforcement? Who was in charge of those meetings? Did the Secret Service attend the 9 o’clock briefing? If the Secret Service didn’t attend the 9 o’clock briefing, the question would be: Why?... If you can’t answer those simple questions, then what are you hiding?"

Mullin further elaborated on standard security protocols:

“Most of the time you start with three perimeters…The inner one, the diamond, had three jobs: protect the principle from harassment, embarrassment, and death. Out of every single detail you run, you always do a debrief. What went right? What went wrong? How do we improve?... All we are asking is Secret Service to give us the debrief."

He stressed accountability within USSS operations:

“If you cannot admit you did something wrong, you are destined to do it again."

“There are 31 individuals that every single day are depending on the Secret Service to do their job. There are 31 individuals who have families who are depending on the Secret Service to do their job."

Senator Mullin also shared insights from his conversation with President Trump following the incident:

“I spoke with President Trump the day after the assassination attempt. The first thing he did was he praised the Secret Service, those in his diamond, for doing their job. He praised them for jumping in and protecting him. His words were: ‘Didn’t they do a great job?’"

Clarifying his stance on accountability within USSS leadership:

“I’m not against the Secret Service. People need to be held accountable, not just Kimberly [the former director]. Other people that were in charge of site security need to be held accountable also. I think that is what Congress is trying to get to. We want to prevent this from happening ever again.”

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