A Secret Service agent who literally took a bullet for President Ronald Reagan is now defending the agency after the shocking armed breach at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Tim McCarthy — the agent wounded during the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan — says critics need to cool it.
“I think we need to ratchet down the rhetoric just a little bit and give the Secret Service at the moment quite a bit of credit for doing a hell of a good job,” McCarthy said on NewsNation Live.
That’s no small endorsement.
McCarthy was among the agents protecting Reagan outside the Washington Hilton in March 1981 when would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr. opened fire. Reagan was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off his limousine, piercing his lung and causing massive internal bleeding. McCarthy, along with Press Secretary James Brady and others, was also struck — Brady left permanently disabled.
Now, more than four decades later, McCarthy is weighing in on another high-stakes moment at the very same hotel.
On Saturday night, an armed suspect stormed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where President Donald Trump was in attendance — sparking panic and fierce backlash online over security failures.
But McCarthy says the system worked.
“This guy really didn’t get too far,” he said. “He ran through the metal detectors… exchanged gunfire… wasn’t even on the same floor… and was tackled by an agent, never got to the stairs.”
Despite viral outrage — and even the suspect himself claiming there was “no damn security” — McCarthy emphasized the layered defense that stopped the threat cold.
“Now, security is in layers,” he explained, detailing how multiple levels of resistance stood between the gunman and the president, including counter-assault teams and SWAT units.
Bottom line: the shooter never got close.
“Security was tested, security responded, and at this point it did pretty well,” McCarthy said.
The Trump White House appears to agree.
Officials praised the Secret Service for quickly evacuating the president, vice president, and cabinet, while Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is set to review protocols going forward.
Still, critics have questioned whether more could have been done — including calls to lock down the entire hotel.
McCarthy dismissed that idea outright.
“Well, try finding a hotel with a ballroom if you’re going to shut the hotel down,” he said. “You’re not going to find one. No one’s going to want to do that.”
He also noted that security included multiple layers — possibly more than the standard three — and that the threat never reached the ballroom floor.
For McCarthy, who lived through one of the darkest days in presidential security history, the verdict is clear:
“So far, based on what I know, I’m pretty satisfied with what the Secret Service did on this occasion.”
The Washington Hilton hotel said is a statement Monday it was following “stringent” Secret Service protocols during Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
“The hotel was operating under stringent security protocols for the property as directed by the U.S. Secret Service, which led security,” a hotel spokesperson said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The spokesperson reportedly added that the Secret Service coordinated with numerous security teams, including the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in addition to hotel security.
BUT SS had TDS at Butler shooting too & same here?
While the ‘look’ of security isn’t good, this writer ( the former Agent ) has a good point.
There was probably a LOT of security that no one could even see.
These people are professionals. They know how to do what they do without it being seen.
The ‘quiet part’ of security is to ‘do their thing’ in such a way that a ‘bad guy’ has no knowledge of what is in place with which to stop said ‘bad guy’.
If the ‘bad guy’ knows what’s ahead for him/her, that person may be able to find a way around that security measure.
And THAT would NOT be good security!