Recriminations and reactions abound over the security breach at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Saturday night as government officials and political analysts ponder what could have been.
President Donald Trump and his administration have praised the Secret Service and law enforcement for keeping them safe during this shocking ordeal, and those inside the ballroom rushed into action, literally putting themselves between the threat and the Commander-in-Chief. But many others, including the 1,500 journalists that were in the room that night, are asking some important questions as to how this lone gunman could have come so close to pulling off an assassination attempt.
It defies logic that there were no security perimeters at the doorways to the hotel, that hotel guests were not thoroughly screened and vetted, that people sitting at the hotel bar or in the lobby could watch the parade of A-listers attending the hottest party of the year without ever going through a magnetometer.
I’ve attended dozens of events at the Washington Hilton, including numerous correspondents’ dinners. Last year, while speaking at a side event to the National Prayer Breakfast, I walked into the lower lobby of the Hilton hotel, the famous entrance where Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. There was no security at the door; there were no Secret Service or police officers checking IDs or purses. An hour later, someone told me the president was speaking in the ballroom one level below. I was indignant, insisting that he could not possibly be in the hotel because there was no security where I entered. Rushing to another room to check, there was President Trump live on television from the ballroom in the hotel.
If I had intended harm, I could have had a bomb strapped to my body and blown up the entire hotel. The shooter in Saturday’s incident could have done the same. What if he’d brought four other guys to try to run through security all at once, like the 9-11 hijackers rushed the cockpit of airplanes?
In fact, according to The Washington Post, the suspected gunman ridiculed the lax security at the hotel in a text saying, “Iranian agents could easily have brought more dangerous weapons to the venue.”
As the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, with whom we happen to be in open military conflict, Iran could definitely have done far worse.
The terrorist attacks of 9-11 woke up U.S. intelligence and national security communities to ask the hard questions—did they fail to imagine how our enemies could attack us?
It’s time for the Secret Service to ask some hard questions. This is the third attempt on President Trump’s life, and the lapses keep happening. Something is broken.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has called a come-to-Jesus meeting with those tasked with protecting the president.
No doubt there was failure here, but overcorrection and overreaction are not the answer either.
In the aftermath of 9-11, those who live in Washington, D.C., saw all the barricades go up, saw the street closings around Capitol Hill office buildings, saw the dogs sniffing every car that goes into the garage at federal buildings. We still see military personnel with machine guns or sitting in armed Humvees stationed at various locations around the Capitol, the White House, and the Lincoln Memorial. While airports no longer require passengers to take off their shoes, the Senate office buildings still do if something sets off the magnetometer. We’ve all experienced the hassles at airport security and the infringement of our rights as citizens.
Last year’s inaugural events in Washington were another example of overkill. The entire city was locked down, major streets were closed for days, fencing and barricades were everywhere, preventing pedestrians from even walking on sidewalks without going through a security checkpoint, even though the parade was canceled and the inauguration moved inside the Capitol. If attending an inaugural ball, the security perimeter was at least a mile away, and all those ladies in ball gowns and heels had to walk it in the frigid cold.
President Trump is right that we cannot allow these actions by a lunatic to deter the country from carrying on and living in freedom.
Overkill is not needed in the aftermath of this breach. Sensible security measures and restrained reforms will keep the president and all of us safe.
This incident laid bare the security tightening needed for an event attended by the President in a hotel ballroom, especially with so many cabinet officials and high-profile targets. Every registered guest at the hotel must be vetted with a background check and their luggage screened for explosives or weapons. Everyone going in and out of that hotel should have been asked for ID and gone through the magnetometers. While an inconvenience for the hotel and for the guests, the risks to their safety is also a factor.
Having worked on presidential campaigns and with numerous government officials, I know the threats are real; and with the heightened sense of division and hate in our country, law enforcement must be more diligent in thinking through what might have been and what more can be done to protect life.