Thread by @susancrabtree

🚨🚨BREAKING: Secret Service Dir. Rowe is addressing the whole agency right now in a conference call and is pressing for a complete "paradigm" overhaul and is advocating for major budget increases.

Says the idea/mindset that we're going to ask you to do more for less is over. "We can no longer operate with that mindset."

"We can no longer wear our people down."

"We have to win the day every day.... We have to be in state of readiness to be able to meet environment."

"I look at Butler as an opportunity also to examine our own paradigm, to examine our own methodologies, to challenge our assumptions, to look at the new dynamic threat environment in which we're operating in, to look at the demands in which we're placing on our people.

"We're rising to this moment. And so I see this as also not only a challenge, but an opportunity for us to make improvements to learn from this so that it never happens again."

(cont.) Rowe says people are now getting the message that we can't "max-out" our people and not compensate them for it.

Says USSS special agents and employees "who have great love for their country and great love for what they do, candidly, the way we work people it's just not sustainable."

"And people are hearing that now. They are grasping it, and we are making that case now."

He's also outlining new technology and new interoperable and sophisticated communications plans.

I'll outline those in this email.

‼️‼️ Rowe, in powerful, humble and earnest remarks, is now "telling employees to build each other up, not tear each other down."

"Look at your brothers and your sisters and the people who left and right of you. you're in this situation with you right now -- build them up -- be better teammates."

"President Lincoln said a house divided will fail -- We have to have unity and singular focus as an organization right now."

👉👉Just before those comments he asked everyone to do some introspection:

"One thing that want to talk to you about is this: Imagine if you had a family member, maybe your father, your mother or sibling or spouse, and they've dedicated their lives to being a core professional. They...become a special agent or uniformed division officer.

"They've made contributions, but somehow, one day, they show up to work, and somehow their co-workers now viw them differently. They view them as inferior. They view them as not being significant contributors to what we're trying to do."

"If that was somebody special to you, I'm pretty confident you would be upset by that."

"I have been saddened by some of the comments that have been directed at our agency, some by people who actually carried the same commission...that I did, or that you do. But we cannot allow that toxicity to creep into our culture."

Ends his remarks by saying: "God bless you, and thank you for your time."

Other important bullet points from Secret Service Dir. Rowe's all-hands speech:

--Said others had control of our budget (prob. a reference to Congress) and "we didn't have much control of it, but we have control now."

--Says USSS has "tremendous support from the Secretary [Mayorkas] and all the senior leaders at the department. Rowe announces that he and his executive board, led by the COO, have put together a plan to meet the short-term needs. (most likely this is an emergency supplemental appropriations request to Congress).

--The approach of saying, "We're going to do more with less, or we'll take care of you next year. that's over. That will not happen. We cannot continue to operate with that mindset."

--Says we have to have the people and technology to meet a dynamic threat environment, which includes the upcoming Olympics in 2028 and constantly evolving terrorist threats.

Great quote:
"It's not just about having the people, it's about the technical capabilities. It's about having that command, control, total domain awareness. When we go to a site, or we're operating in a city, we have [to have] total or complete awareness of [what's] going on, not only on the outer perimeter, but right up to it."

Rowe promised to increase hiring and to provide better training.

"We also have to strengthen our training infrastructure, because in order to be able to have the best protection force in the world, to have the best protection facilities in the world."

"And so these conversations are not just about one single aspect of where we are as an agency. It's about making sure we're looking at this holistically, and not just the next 80 days or so that's left in the election calendar. It's about setting the Secret Service up for success for the next medium and long-term goals."

‼️‼️ This is very important.

On the COMMUNICATIONS BREAKDOWN at the Butler rally and the lack of interoperability with partners:

Rowe said he's already directed the CIO to start looking at how we can use a model similar to the White House Communications Agency, which supports the Secret Service but only for presidential or vice-presidential events.

The WHCA, he says, ensures that the USSS has "connectivity."

"They ensure that we have radio communications [that] are solid, so that in the event of a critical incident, [we can] all talk to each other.

Says some high-tech teams within the Secret Service working to ensure comms continuous reception and connectivity -- said they are already going out to campaign events for Trump and Vance.

"And they are meeting that requirement, and they're doing it with a great job."

"That's what we need to strive for, and that's just an example of how dedicated our personnel are to making sure that we don't fail. So that model is going to be expanded. It's going to take investments. And we're having those conversations to say this is what we need to be successful.

On interoperability communications with local law enforcement:

"It's more than just trying to find the frequency of the local PD that we're working with and diving into our radio network," he said, noting that it will require investments. He said he's already stood up a task force that will be co-chaired by a Secret Service supervisor in the protective division in partnership with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

"We're going to bring together FEMA, we're going to bring together other operational elements of the department. We're going to bring in state and locals. We're going to get in a room, a small room and set them up to monitor communications with our counterpart."

👉👉He describes this new effort as a unified command -- SUGGESTING THAT IT WAS NOT UNIFIED AT BUTLER -- something that I have pointed out was likely the case, based on sources questioning what type of "command center" they used because it didn't seem like it was as formal and unified as many they do for official NSSE (National Special Security Events).

Wow.

From Rowe:
"We're going to put somebody in that command post, or we're going to establish our security room in partnership with that unified command post. It's the same model we use in National Special Security Events, so why would we use it on our daily operations?"

NSSEs are major federal government or public events that are considered to be nationally significant and may be designated by the President—or his representative, as well as the Secretary of the Dept. of Homeland Security.

Rowe concludes his remarks with appreciation for the Secret Servcie's 159-year storied history, which over the last 20 years has become tainted by security lapses and other serious misconduct.

Despite the myriad challenges, Rowe promises to get the job done because "failure is not an option" and asks all of the Secret Service's employees, including himself, "to take care of each other."

"People are listening, and we are going to get this done, because failure is not an option.

There is no other way to do this. We have to do all of us are here because of the ones that went before us. We all have a connection to the past."

"We've been around for 159 years, and we're starting our 60th year. Those folks that started us in 1865 probably never imagined what we'd be doing today. We're here because of them -- the people that will come behind us will be able to do what they do because of what we do right now in this moment.

It's gonna take all of us. But I have every confidence in you, and I ask that you have every confidence in each other, because no moment is too big for us. We want to win because failure is not an option, and there's no other way for us to get out of this.

Let's take care of each other. God bless you and thank you for your time."