(Ken Silva, Headline USA) One might think the Secret Service would be upping its security training for agents in the wake of the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Instead, the Secret Service is offering to send its agents and employees on an “all-expense paid” trip to an LGBTQ+ “Out and Equal” Workplace Summit at Disney World in Orlando next month, according to reporter Susan Crabtree, who obtained an email about the event on Tuesday.
“The call for nominees to attend the conference, which includes leadership plenary sessions, a “Night Out” at Disney Studios, and a gala event the final night, is rankling many rank-and-file special agents and Uniformed Division officers,” Crabtree reported.
One Secret Service whistleblower told Crabtree: “I would like to know with the operational tempo [we’re under], how they think this is an appropriate use of manpower?”
‼️‼️ EXCLUSIVE: The Secret Service’s Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion today at 11:09 a.m. ET sent out an agency-wide request (see email below) for nominees to attend an all-expense paid trip to an LGBTQ+ “Out and Equal” Workplace Summit at Disney World in Orlando Oct.… pic.twitter.com/7foQoFZag8
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) September 4, 2024
Crabtree’s report follows a federal whistleblower telling Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that DHS hasn’t changed its training methods in the wake of the July 13 assassination attempt.
According to Hawley, a whistleblower told him that the only training received by many HSI agents was a single two-hour webinar on Microsoft Teams featuring pre-recorded videos.
“The whistleblower alleged that these videos were not substantive and their playback was frequently riddled with technical mishaps, leaving the HSI agents ill-prepared for the protective mission to which they were newly assigned,” Hawley said Tuesday in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
NEW – My letter to Secret Service Director Rowe detailing new whistleblower allegations that Homeland Security agents working the Butler Trump rally received only “webinar” training beforehand pic.twitter.com/KQZbgDf7Rs
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) September 4, 2024
“To quote the whistleblower directly: ‘Imagine 1,000 people logging onto Microsoft Teams at the same time after being informed at the last minute that everyone needed to login individually,” Hawley said.
“Once it got rolling, the Secret Service instructor couldn’t figure out how to get the audio working on the prerecorded videos (which I’m told are the same videos as last year). All told, they restarted the videos approximately six times …. The content was not helpful.’”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
