July 11, 2025 • 10 mins
Mendte in the Morning talks to Don Mihalek about the failures of the secret service on the day of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump as we near the one year anniversary.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Why you made it to the weekend, and the weekend,
for the most part's going to be beautiful. There's a slight, little,
tiny chance of showers and thunderstorms tomorrow. Keep your eye
on that to see if it changes, if you have
any plans for Saturday Sunday. Still, Sunday still looks pretty
good in the Big Three. The Epstein files are being
(00:21):
kept from us because of the people that may may
be harmed by the files. That is, according to powerful
attorney Alan Dershowitz. Panta god, I know, I know the
names of people whose files are being suppressed in order
to protect them, and that's wrong. That's making huge news
(00:43):
across the country. It's being shared over social media, and
we're proud that it happened on the Sean Spicer podcast,
which you can hear on the iHeartRadio app and that
Sean is going to be with us at eight thirty
five to talk more about what Alan Dershowitz said. One
of the most dangerous people in the world has been
arrested in Nebraska and guess hell he got here. You
(01:06):
don't have to guess, you know. He came over the
southern border along with a lot of other dangerous people.
During the four years of the Biden administration.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I know we've got.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Least six hundred thousand illegal aliens this country with criminal
records walking the streets to this country. The doctor who
treated President Joe Biden for four years had to plete
the fifth in the investigation into what was really happening
in the government and who was really running the government
when Joe Biden was mentally incapable to do so.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
There's always people invested in keeping a president, even a
president who looks like you know Weekend with Bernie. They
it's in their advantage to keep him in office.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And a song by a Christian singer songwriter caught in
the Texas floods has gone viral as an anthem of
hope and in the middle of tragedy Testy.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Tes Son.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's Christian singer Lauren Tyler of the Tylers. The Tylers
are just her and her husband. You heard her husband
singing there too. It's been shared now millions of time
on social media. She's talking to God in the middle
of tragedy and thanking him for his presence in the
middle of tragedy. Just a wonderful song. You can find
it on social media now. Let's talk more about the
(02:38):
assassination attempt on President Trump, which will be one year
ago on Sunday. Don Mahaalik is the ABC News Law
Enforcement contributor and a retired senior Secret Service agent. Sarah,
thank you so much for spending time with us today.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be back
in New York.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
So a year later, what do we know that's new
about that day in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, there were multiple investigations launched. The Secret Service did
an internal investigation, DHS did a special investigation, and then
both Chambers of Congress did separate investigations of as well,
and they all came down around the same basic points
that there was a failure broadly of command and communication
at the Secret Service at the time. Did not establish
(03:30):
enough command over the site, did not address site specific
issues like the roofline communication interoperability between them and the locals,
did not establish clear enough instructions with the locals, did
not use enough technologies to deal with some of the
issues at the site like the roofline. Drones were there
(03:53):
but weren't operational. Broadly, that the Secret Service failed to
oversee the site and lined with their protocols, policies, and procedures.
So Congress came out and I think they gave them
DHS forty one recommendations to work on, and I think
the Service has since then been working on fixing a
lot of those recommendations, including clarifying policies related to who's
(04:17):
in charge of the site, who's responsible for the site,
who has to the reporting chain up through the supervisory
ranks of the site, how they're supposed to interact with
local police, who's supposed to be in the command center,
how the radio communications is supposed to work, and how
they're supposed to mitigate potential issues at the site with
(04:38):
the use of different technologies that are now available.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
One of the great failures seems to be, aside from
incompetence in not having a building covered that was in
the line of sight of the president, was arrogance because
it sounds like the local police had several meetings, including
their SWAT team, had meetings about that day that no
one from the Secret Service went to. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
From what the reports and the investigation says, is there
were separate meetings that were ongoing, just like there were
separate command posts at the site, which typically is not
the way the Secret Service does business. Normally, when the
Secret Service comes in and is setting up a protective site,
all the meetings that are had are owned and operated
by the Secret Service. There's usually one command post or
(05:29):
security rooms set up for a site. In this case,
for some reason, there were separate, separate meetings that were
going on that the Secret Services either weren't aware of
or were or didn't weren't holding. And the same thing
with the security room. There were two security rooms set
up where the Secret Service wasn't president one but was
president and another. Broadly speaking, the Secret Service should have
(05:52):
done the better job of managing and establishing command of
the site. That didn't happen. There's a bunch of reasons
that didn't happen. I think a bunch of them are
legacy issues with the agency which are now being addressed hopefully.
But overall, a lot of the failures that went on
at Butler are things if you look back in time,
(06:13):
even as recently as the twenty fourteen Protection Mission Panel
and the Secret Service was dealing with a bunch of
bench jumpers, are issues within the agency that were overdue
to be addressed because of the expanded mission. The agency
has the personnel issues the agency has been grappling with
and trying to establish and use newer technologies which the
(06:36):
agency has struggled with throughout my time there done.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I know there's been suspensions, but no one was fired
over this, and it was an incredible failure that the
whole world got to see. Why is that? Why wouldn't
someone be let go if they were part of this
kind of failure.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Well, as we all know, Director Cheetah was forced to resign,
so she resigned. She was ultimately responsible for the site
the protection that day. The acting deputy director was recently
forced out. And you know, the government has a pretty
wonky discipline process, and from my understanding, when the incident happened,
(07:18):
the agency launched an investigation. They proposed discipline to those
that they found responsible for gaps in the security plan.
There were appeals that took place, and what we heard
the other day is the end result of the appeals.
The bottom line is, if it were me, I would
have preferred it handled like most law enforcement agencies handily
(07:39):
shooting incident, where right afterwards everybody is put on leave,
an investigation occurs, and during that investigation, you either clear
people where you establish responsibility and then you established discipline.
I think had that happened last year, people would have
been held accountable and we wouldn't be talking about it now.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
How come we don't know a lot about Tom Crooks
to this day? He had burner phones. Who was he
talking to?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Everybody asked that question. I don't know if that's more
conspiracy theory or what, but I know the FBI recently
briefed the President about their investigation into Thomas Crook. And
the bottom line is, from my understanding and from the
five investigations that went on that involved also looking at
Thomas Crook, is it all comes down to he was
(08:27):
a mentally challenged young man who had an unusual direction
of interest towards President Trump, who came to the site,
found a gap and a security plan including one of
the gaps, was ninety minutes prior. The local police had
identified him as suspicious and communicated within their own chain,
(08:48):
but didn't communicate that to the Secret Service until almost
the last minute, which goes to the communication into operability
that the Secret Service is supposed to have at these sites,
and that he managed because he was able to take
advance of the security gaps, he was able to take
the shot at President Trump. From my understanding, all the
investigations the FBI all agree on that is who Thomas
(09:09):
Crook was.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
But he did have burner phones.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Right, He had a bunch of cell phones. I would
assume that both the FBI and a Secret Service during
their investigation went through those phones and figured out who
he was talking to and established whether it merited more
investigation or not. But there was evidence to support a
broader conspiracy. But it seems to me that all five
(09:33):
reports have come down the same way, and as recently
as a couple of weeks ago, when the FBI briefed
the President, which it's his own, FBI Director Patel and
Deputy Director by Gina, they also established the same thing
that there was nothing more than what we saw at
Butler as far as Matthew Crooks and at a broader conspiracy.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Don Mahallak, ABC News law enforcement contributor and retired Senior
Service Agent Secret Service agent, thank you so much for
your time. That was really enlightening. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Thanks for having me on
Why you made it to the weekend, and the weekend,
for the most part's going to be beautiful. There's a slight, little,
tiny chance of showers and thunderstorms tomorrow. Keep your eye
on that to see if it changes, if you have
any plans for Saturday Sunday. Still, Sunday still looks pretty
good in the Big Three. The Epstein files are being
(00:21):
kept from us because of the people that may may
be harmed by the files. That is, according to powerful
attorney Alan Dershowitz. Panta god, I know, I know the
names of people whose files are being suppressed in order
to protect them, and that's wrong. That's making huge news
(00:43):
across the country. It's being shared over social media, and
we're proud that it happened on the Sean Spicer podcast,
which you can hear on the iHeartRadio app and that
Sean is going to be with us at eight thirty
five to talk more about what Alan Dershowitz said. One
of the most dangerous people in the world has been
arrested in Nebraska and guess hell he got here. You
(01:06):
don't have to guess, you know. He came over the
southern border along with a lot of other dangerous people.
During the four years of the Biden administration.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I know we've got.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Least six hundred thousand illegal aliens this country with criminal
records walking the streets to this country. The doctor who
treated President Joe Biden for four years had to plete
the fifth in the investigation into what was really happening
in the government and who was really running the government
when Joe Biden was mentally incapable to do so.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
There's always people invested in keeping a president, even a
president who looks like you know Weekend with Bernie. They
it's in their advantage to keep him in office.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
And a song by a Christian singer songwriter caught in
the Texas floods has gone viral as an anthem of
hope and in the middle of tragedy Testy.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Tes Son.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's Christian singer Lauren Tyler of the Tylers. The Tylers
are just her and her husband. You heard her husband
singing there too. It's been shared now millions of time
on social media. She's talking to God in the middle
of tragedy and thanking him for his presence in the
middle of tragedy. Just a wonderful song. You can find
it on social media now. Let's talk more about the
(02:38):
assassination attempt on President Trump, which will be one year
ago on Sunday. Don Mahaalik is the ABC News Law
Enforcement contributor and a retired senior Secret Service agent. Sarah,
thank you so much for spending time with us today.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be back
in New York.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
So a year later, what do we know that's new
about that day in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, there were multiple investigations launched. The Secret Service did
an internal investigation, DHS did a special investigation, and then
both Chambers of Congress did separate investigations of as well,
and they all came down around the same basic points
that there was a failure broadly of command and communication
at the Secret Service at the time. Did not establish
(03:30):
enough command over the site, did not address site specific
issues like the roofline communication interoperability between them and the locals,
did not establish clear enough instructions with the locals, did
not use enough technologies to deal with some of the
issues at the site like the roofline. Drones were there
(03:53):
but weren't operational. Broadly, that the Secret Service failed to
oversee the site and lined with their protocols, policies, and procedures.
So Congress came out and I think they gave them
DHS forty one recommendations to work on, and I think
the Service has since then been working on fixing a
lot of those recommendations, including clarifying policies related to who's
(04:17):
in charge of the site, who's responsible for the site,
who has to the reporting chain up through the supervisory
ranks of the site, how they're supposed to interact with
local police, who's supposed to be in the command center,
how the radio communications is supposed to work, and how
they're supposed to mitigate potential issues at the site with
(04:38):
the use of different technologies that are now available.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
One of the great failures seems to be, aside from
incompetence in not having a building covered that was in
the line of sight of the president, was arrogance because
it sounds like the local police had several meetings, including
their SWAT team, had meetings about that day that no
one from the Secret Service went to. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (05:06):
From what the reports and the investigation says, is there
were separate meetings that were ongoing, just like there were
separate command posts at the site, which typically is not
the way the Secret Service does business. Normally, when the
Secret Service comes in and is setting up a protective site,
all the meetings that are had are owned and operated
by the Secret Service. There's usually one command post or
(05:29):
security rooms set up for a site. In this case,
for some reason, there were separate, separate meetings that were
going on that the Secret Services either weren't aware of
or were or didn't weren't holding. And the same thing
with the security room. There were two security rooms set
up where the Secret Service wasn't president one but was
president and another. Broadly speaking, the Secret Service should have
(05:52):
done the better job of managing and establishing command of
the site. That didn't happen. There's a bunch of reasons
that didn't happen. I think a bunch of them are
legacy issues with the agency which are now being addressed hopefully.
But overall, a lot of the failures that went on
at Butler are things if you look back in time,
(06:13):
even as recently as the twenty fourteen Protection Mission Panel
and the Secret Service was dealing with a bunch of
bench jumpers, are issues within the agency that were overdue
to be addressed because of the expanded mission. The agency
has the personnel issues the agency has been grappling with
and trying to establish and use newer technologies which the
(06:36):
agency has struggled with throughout my time there done.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
I know there's been suspensions, but no one was fired
over this, and it was an incredible failure that the
whole world got to see. Why is that? Why wouldn't
someone be let go if they were part of this
kind of failure.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Well, as we all know, Director Cheetah was forced to resign,
so she resigned. She was ultimately responsible for the site
the protection that day. The acting deputy director was recently
forced out. And you know, the government has a pretty
wonky discipline process, and from my understanding, when the incident happened,
(07:18):
the agency launched an investigation. They proposed discipline to those
that they found responsible for gaps in the security plan.
There were appeals that took place, and what we heard
the other day is the end result of the appeals.
The bottom line is, if it were me, I would
have preferred it handled like most law enforcement agencies handily
(07:39):
shooting incident, where right afterwards everybody is put on leave,
an investigation occurs, and during that investigation, you either clear
people where you establish responsibility and then you established discipline.
I think had that happened last year, people would have
been held accountable and we wouldn't be talking about it now.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
How come we don't know a lot about Tom Crooks
to this day? He had burner phones. Who was he
talking to?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Everybody asked that question. I don't know if that's more
conspiracy theory or what, but I know the FBI recently
briefed the President about their investigation into Thomas Crook. And
the bottom line is, from my understanding and from the
five investigations that went on that involved also looking at
Thomas Crook, is it all comes down to he was
(08:27):
a mentally challenged young man who had an unusual direction
of interest towards President Trump, who came to the site,
found a gap and a security plan including one of
the gaps, was ninety minutes prior. The local police had
identified him as suspicious and communicated within their own chain,
(08:48):
but didn't communicate that to the Secret Service until almost
the last minute, which goes to the communication into operability
that the Secret Service is supposed to have at these sites,
and that he managed because he was able to take
advance of the security gaps, he was able to take
the shot at President Trump. From my understanding, all the
investigations the FBI all agree on that is who Thomas
(09:09):
Crook was.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
But he did have burner phones.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Right, He had a bunch of cell phones. I would
assume that both the FBI and a Secret Service during
their investigation went through those phones and figured out who
he was talking to and established whether it merited more
investigation or not. But there was evidence to support a
broader conspiracy. But it seems to me that all five
(09:33):
reports have come down the same way, and as recently
as a couple of weeks ago, when the FBI briefed
the President, which it's his own, FBI Director Patel and
Deputy Director by Gina, they also established the same thing
that there was nothing more than what we saw at
Butler as far as Matthew Crooks and at a broader conspiracy.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Don Mahallak, ABC News law enforcement contributor and retired Senior
Service Agent Secret Service agent, thank you so much for
your time. That was really enlightening. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Thanks for having me on
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