BOZEMAN — Congressional hearings on security measures during the attempted assassination of former President Trump are set for this Monday.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calls last Saturday's shooting a security failure.
Mitch Price, a current Bozeman resident and a former Secret Service agent for more than twenty years has many feelings regarding the attempted assassination.
"You know, my initial response was shock, anger, and many questions. I have many questions like everybody else, and I probably looked at them differently because of my background. I used to also be an instructor of the Secret Service training division, so I kind of looked at it as a training exercise and how we evaluate the success and failure of the training exercise afterward," Price says.
He served as a Special Agent on the Counter Assault Team (CAT), a working agent on the Presidential Protective Division (PPD), a Supervisory Special Agent on PPD, and an instructor in the Secret Service Training Division, where he taught what they refer to as "Protection" to new Secret Service agents.
"It's absolutely critical that we have the support of local and state law enforcement. We can't do the job effectively without them, so we are an integrated team when we put these security events together," Price says.
They work closely with local agencies when planning political events and appearances in differing states, including Montana.
"Like we typically do, we will reach out to the Bozeman Police Department, Gallatin County, and Montana Highway Patrol. Those entities that help support us and a planning process will be implemented immediately, and a security plan will be put into place," Price says.
Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer says they are prepared in case an event needing extra security comes to Bozeman.
"But we know if we have something that comes to Bozeman, we would absolutely have all hands on deck with resources they need to make sure the president or one of the congressional members or candidates are safe," Springer says.
Mitch Price says misinformation is causing more harm in regard to the Saturday shooting.
"I've seen a tremendous amount of—I'll allude to the term of self-appointed security experts—weighing in with opinions that in a significant percent of these cases, they have no idea what they are talking about," Price says.
Price says the Secret Service is an unbiased entity.
"We protect the institution of the presidency and the vice presidency; it's the institution ultimately that we protect. And you know, we used to have this saying: 'You elect them, we protect them.' As simple as that sounds, it very much applies," Price says.
Authorities are still investigating the motivation of the shooter. And former President Trump has been formally nominated as the 2024 Republican candidate for the presidency.
