Anyone remember the old movie Dave (1993)? It’s about a guy who runs a temporary employment agency, and does official impersonations of the US President on the side. One of the characters is Duane Stevenson, a Secret Service agent assigned to the President, who, as it happens, is a philandering, power-mad fool. Stevenson, although discrete, makes it clear that he has no respect for this President; when the President suffers a stroke and Dave takes over temporarily, and far more honorably, Stevenson’s change from contempt for Dave, who initially goes along with the loathesome scheming of an associate of the President, to respect as Dave diverges from the script is a guide for the audience.
I couldn’t help but think that we’re direly unlucky in that, in real life, we’ll not be making that transition from contempt to respect with our current President, as I read Steve Benen’s remarks about the typically absolutely silent Secret Service actually having to issue multiple statements to refute the communications of their client, the President:
But as part of the same Saturday morning Twitter thread, Trump kept going, claiming that “many” Secret Service agent were “just waiting for action.” Quoting an unnamed person, who may or may not exist, the president added, “We put the young ones on the front line, sir, they love it, and good practice.”
Trump went on to say that Muriel Bowser, the mayor of the District of Columbia, “wouldn’t let” local police respond to the unrest near the White House.
It was about four hours later when the Secret Service issued a press release saying largely the opposite.
“The Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Park Police were on the scene.”
As for assertions that agents were eager for a violent confrontation with protestors, the Secret Service’s official statement seemed to dismiss this, too.
“Some of the demonstrators were violent, assaulting Secret Service Officers and Special Agents with bricks, rocks, bottles, fireworks, and other items. Multiple Secret Service Uniformed Division Officers and Special Agents sustained injuries from this violence. The Secret Service respects the right to assemble, and we ask that individuals do so peacefully for the safety of all.”
I don’t know, but I suspect such remarks are unprecedented, and whether they truly reflect the Secret Service’s opinion of the President or not, I read their very existence as an attempt to disassociate themselves from the communications of a profoundly dishonorable man.
And it’s quite striking. While I don’t expect to hear much more from the Secret Service, much less some anti-Trump statement, it’s worth keeping this in mind: The Secret Service is certainly going to have eyes on some of the worst behaviors of the President. How this plays out could be quite interesting.
