A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For more security and safety insights for high-profile events, we've called up former Homeland Security official Juliette Kayyem. She's been writing about this for The Atlantic Magazine. She also leads the Homeland Security Project at Harvard University and helps cities prepare for major events such as the World Cup. So, Juliette, as we've been reporting, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche says existing safety protocols worked. What do you think?
JULIETTE KAYYEM: In many ways, that is correct. If you define the security mission, every safety and security planning has a mission as ensure that the president is always protected. In that regard, the Secret Service did everything right. The room, the ballroom was never breached. The shooter was never close to the president, and the president was evacuated relatively quickly. We could quibble about the timing on that. It's important to remember that the mission cannot be nothing bad ever happens. The mission is very, very directed for the Secret Service.
MARTÍNEZ: So I guess it's kind of like if you're a sports fan, if your team wins, it's how they got to that win that matters because, ultimately, you want them to win. So was this a win?
KAYYEM: Yes. And, I mean, this...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
KAYYEM: I'm a lawyer by training. And so when I took the bar, someone said to me, all you need is a D. And that's right. I mean, you don't need to get an A-plus every time. We can - I mean, I think it's good that there's a review.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
KAYYEM: But I think that review will show sort of, you know, whether having it at a hotel like that is the smartest place.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Because there are ugly wins, too, in sports, and prosecutors say...
KAYYEM: Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: ...The suspect carried a shotgun, a handgun and several knives. I mean, how did he manage to make it as far as he did, storming security checkpoints on a floor above the event with those weapons apparently undetected?
KAYYEM: Yeah. That - I mean, this is the - the hotel becomes the sort of focus. We saw this also in a major attack from a hotel in Las Vegas, that the shooter enters the hotel as a guest, not as a shooter. Then is patient, has time. Then when the event or the concert, in the case of Las Vegas, happens, you know, then begins to plan it. So he's staying in his room. You know, if he does not have housekeeping come in, the housekeepers are not going to see anything nefarious. And that's - so that's exactly how he got in. But, again, you know, that's a breach of the outer perimeter of a very secure ballroom. We don't want those breaches, but that's different than saying, I - you know, I'd have a very different narrative if the ballroom had been breached.
MARTÍNEZ: The alleged shooter ran in very, very quickly, very fast. From a video posted by the Trump administration online, can you gauge whether the response time by the agents was a quick one, a rapid one?
KAYYEM: That's one - that's the question I can't answer right now 'cause we simply don't have the tick-tock on timing. It looks slower than you would want. And maybe - but they eventually do get him. He was running fast. Also remember what he's running to. He is - it's not just he has guys behind him. Every door is - at the ballroom, and presumably the staircase or elevator down is also secure. So he's running, but he's also running to more security.
MARTÍNEZ: If this event had been, say, at the White House ballroom, the one that President Trump...
KAYYEM: Yes.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Wants, would it be easier to protect him and people around him?
KAYYEM: Absolutely, if that's your only standard for a democracy. I mean, I think that's - you know, that's the issue here, is not every party is a White House party. There are private parties. There are events like the 250th coming up, like the World Cup. Obviously, and I joke, you know, none of the - not all of them can take place at the White House. The president and his detail and the chief of staff are going to have to decide what events do they want him to go to outside of the White House. The solution is not, we're going to bring events to the White House. It's a bad take for the White House to use an assassination attempt as a way to get what they've wanted for the last couple of months, which is, you know, the ballroom.
But I will say, you know, the other piece of this is - in my world of sort of mega-event planning, we never talk about safe. We talk about safer because for these events - and people are thinking about the summer ahead - you know, what you're trying to do is, of course, minimize risk. As a planner, you're trying to maximize defenses and get, you know, your state and local and private security all align. But don't forget the third piece of this - right? - which has equal weight, which is fun and joy and togetherness and celebration and all the things that we care about as human beings. And I think we have to remember that's part of the security calculation. And even someone like me who spends all their time in this space knows that, that there's an essence of who we are as human beings, as citizens...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
KAYYEM: ...As family and friends and sports watchers, that we also want to retain.
MARTÍNEZ: I was going to say, Juliette, you work in security. You're not supposed to be having fun any time. Head on swivel.
KAYYEM: I know. I call my job I don't have fun so you can.
MARTÍNEZ: There you go.
KAYYEM: But yes.
MARTÍNEZ: There you go.
KAYYEM: (Laughter).
MARTÍNEZ: That's Juliette Kayyem. Thanks a lot, Juliette.
KAYYEM: Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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