New report blasts Secret Service leadership, culture following Trump assassination attempts

WASHINGTON - The Secret Service was blasted in a new report out Thursday criticizing the agency’s leadership and warning that its culture is threatening its mission to protect presidents, their families and candidates.  

Former Secret Service officials tell FOX 5 that one of the big takeaways from this report is that the federal government can’t fix the issues within the Secret Service if it doesn’t know what’s wrong inside the agency. 

When it comes to personnel and funding issues, the report indicates that the Secret Service may have been too secret about its personnel and funding issues.

The 52-page report out this morning took Secret Service to task for relying too much on local law enforcement at the July 13 rally, which led to mistakes. The panel was also critical of Secret Service’s unofficial policy of "doing more with less." It wants new outside leadership the focuses on its protection mission.  

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Former Secret Service Agent Bobby McDonald tells FOX 5 that the agency needs reform.

"There’s a lot of things in this report Tom that I think the Secret Service is going to have to grasp onto, look in the mirror and see how those recommendations can move them forward in a culture that normally wouldn’t take those recommendations," McDonald said. 

But can Secret Service reform? Some longtime observers have doubts. One of the strongest recommendations is new leadership. 

Former Washington Post correspondent Ronald Kessler has written several books on Secret Service. He says the current interim director has been responsive to outside calls for reform inside the Secret Service but tells FOX 5 that a new leader could put a new focus on the primary mission of protecting presidents. 

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"We have to jettison this ‘we make do with less’ and that, to me, tells me that he’s not going to cover up and that he understands the problems but there’s only so much he can do," Kessler said. "The problems are so extensive." 

In a statement to FOX 5, Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Rowe said, "we are not waiting to act. We have already significantly improved our readiness. Operational and organizational communications and implemented enhanced protective operations for the former president and other protectees."

Meanwhile, a bi-partisan congressional task force is still conducting its own investigation. Their report is expected before the end of the year.