AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
On a hot day in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, President Trump stood at a podium, speaking to a crowd of thousands. Then pops of gunfire, as a bullet grazed the president's ear. The assassination attempt two years ago tomorrow galvanized Trump supporters and sparked criticism of the Secret Service. How did they let this happen? We wanted to know how the Secret Service has changed or not in response to calls for more accountability. Joining us this morning is MS NOW reporter Carol Leonnig. Thanks so much for being here.
CAROL LEONNIG: It's my pleasure.
RASCOE: You have extensively covered the Secret Service for years. Give us your assessment. To date, has there been a full accounting of what went wrong in Butler?
LEONNIG: Yes and no. I mean, there have been multiple investigations. And really, what was so important and devastating for the Secret Service about Butler was that the Secret Service had failed sort of security 101. Every Secret Service agent I have ever met describes the obsessive way that they prepare to mitigate the risk of someone shooting with a high-powered rifle or gun at the president ever since John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. And in this case, the Secret Service sort of miserably and very sadly failed to even barely protect Donald Trump from that risk.
RASCOE: Well, then how have they figured out why they weren't able to protect against this long-form shot from, you know, above, when that's something they have focused on so much?
LEONNIG: This happened because they had been stretched far too thin. They had a candidate who was Donald Trump, at the time, not a president. They prioritized the president, the vice president, and indeed, on that weekend, even the first lady. And the candidate, Donald Trump, a person who has a pretty high threat risk, did not get that same level of protection.
The other thing the Secret Service was pretty embarrassed to admit but we were able to report at the time was that they sent really inexperienced people to Butler to prepare. The woman who was in charge of mapping out the basic draft for security that day had really never planned for an event like this before.
RASCOE: Well, there have been other incidents since Butler - the White House Correspondent's Dinner shooting in April, the alleged plot to attack officials at the White House UFC fight. That was thwarted by law enforcement. How has Secret Service changed its operations?
LEONNIG: Well, there is one significant way the Secret Service has begun to adapt to the really skyrocketing number of threats against Donald Trump's life. They've created a special unit to try to identify every single person online who is talking about threatening language involving the president. This unit is getting much larger and is trying to find threats that are even just far more vague.
But, you know, one of the biggest problems for the Secret Service is they are under, you know, the direction of a president who does not value investing in government and investing in government agencies. And what I found in a series of security breaches during President Obama's time is that the Secret Service's failures, in most of those instances, related to a lack of investment in the agency.
RASCOE: Carol, I want to ask you about a story that was reported by The New York Times and by you at MS NOW a few days ago, the fact that the president flew out of Turkey on Air Force One instead of the jet that Qatar gifted him. Now, the Trump administration has issued subpoenas for The New York Times' reporters, and the Trump administration called you a liar for that reporting. Can you tell us more about that?
LEONNIG: Well, I find it kind of confounding, right? I don't think there's any dispute about the fact that a security issue and concern is the reason that Donald Trump ended up switching jets in Turkey and flying on his old Air Force One that he had rejected to the United Kingdom. I share The New York Times' concern about these subpoenas because there is really nothing classified or criminal about reporters reporting that there was a security concern. It's odd to have the Department of Justice subpoenaing reporters for trying to educate the American public about what's going on.
RASCOE: That's Carol Leonnig of MS NOW. Thank you so much for being here.
LEONNIG: Thank you, Ayesha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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