This is trump related so I figure I may as well start here.
So a Secret Service Agent is being suspended for saying things about Trump before he ever held public office (she said she would take jail time before she took a bullet for Trump).
If she had said this after the election, then I would say fire her. But I’m not as sure about firing her for stuff she said before he got elected.
She made these statements in October when Trump was the nominee (and already under secret service protection).
What if she had made these statements before he was under Secret Service protection?
What if she made these statements back in 2012 when Trump was toying with the idea of running for president?
As someone who finds our current administration as distasteful a thing as I’ve ever seen, it doesn’t sound like she’s willing or capable of doing the job that she’s been hired to do. If the job is “defend the president,” and she states she won’t work to defend Trump in the same way she would work to defend other people who might hold that role, then out she goes.
I don’t fault her for her feelings, nor her honesty, but it seems clear that she can’t/won’t do the job she was hired for.
Yeah, I don’t really see the problem here. If I were the president (or any individual requiring such a security detail), I wouldn’t want somebody on my staff that said something like that about me in that role, and I would hope, since my life is at stake, that I would be able to do something about it, should I choose.
I’m no fan of Trump either, but this was clearly an incredibly stupid thing to say. It would be stupid to say in conversation in a bar, but it’s really stupid to tweet that sort of thing. People share far too much on social media.
By the way, I see nothing in that article that says she has been suspended. I see that it says she is being investigated. That seems appropriate under the circumstances.
I agree with Eonwe and others here…Sympathize with her feelings about the Pathological Liar in Chief but it does express an unwillingness to do the job, however distasteful, that she is hired to do (and may or may not be in violation of the Hatch Act; I’m less clear on that)…and hence at least an investigation seems appropriate.
And it isn’t like she’ll have a problem finding another job. Secret Service agents are the top of their field. They are well educated, well trained, and dedicated. She can work private security for a corporation - probably make a ton more money. She can work for the FBI (assuming she isn’t politically blackballed, but nothing she said means she wouldn’t be a good FBI agent). She can go into state or local law enforcement.
And that assumes the the Secret Service doesn’t just slap her wrists and make sure she isn’t on a Presidential detail.
I don’t know what Agent O’Grady expected to happen, but I’m pretty sure she’s aware that her government career is at best effectively stalled at her current level. It’s bad policy not to, at minimum, reassign agents once they’ve declared they have issues with any particular officials under protection. The Secret Service also covers financial crime investigations, but once you’ve very deliberately chosen to declare and publicize your partisanship, you probably ought not continue as an agent in any capacity with that particular agency.
I didn’t read the link, I’m at work at risking my hide as it is…
But if that’s how she feels, and who can blame her, she should resign as a matter of principle.
Frankly this level of stupidity is reason alone. Seriously, she put this out in October for the world to see? Are we confident she knows which way of her gun the bullets come out of?
Even if she is not in violation of the Hatch Act - and she absolutely is in spirit, since she endorsed Clinton, if not in practical application - she acted in a sensationally unprofessional manner.
Wikipedia says that the secret service is subject to additional restrictions but on its face the hatch act seems to allow federal employees to say whatever they want on their own time as long as they are not using their official position to affect an election.
Is it because she violated the special restrictions on the secret service?
