The Secret Service's approval rating fell 23 points in a new Gallup poll largely conducted before the second assassination attempt on former President Trump just over a week ago. Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said that personnel would face disciplinary action over the failure to secure the Butler, Pa., site of the rally shooting. The poll found that the percentage of adults who say the Secret Service is doing an excellent or good job dropped to a 10-year low, Axios reports. Only 8% of U.S. adults rate the agency's performance as "excellent" and 24% say it is "good." In 2014, just 43% of respondents rated the agency as excellent or good after a series of security lapses, including an intruder who jumped the White House fence and entered the building.
A compromise bill to keep the federal government operating into December includes $231 million in new appropriations for the Secret Service to provide protection for presidential candidates, an issue that has taken center stage after the assassination attempts, reports Roll Call. The added money for the Secret Service — which crept up in the final hours of bargaining — is confined to the agency’s immediate needs for campaign purposes, and is contingent on the agency meeting lawmakers’ demands for information as it conducts oversight of the agency. The next challenge for the embattled agency is this week's United Nations General Assembly, the annual diplomatic pilgrimage that brings more than 140 world leaders to Manhattan. The Secret Service is confident in its multi-layer, multi-agency plan to protect the General Assembly, which is deemed a Super Bowl-level National Special Security Event.
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