Security the night Donald Trump and Joe Biden met in Atlanta for the first debate of the campaign season was a formidable, multi-agency effort involving the U.S. Secret Service and numerous local, state and federal agencies.
The June 27 debate at CNN’s Techwood campus in Midtown saw closed streets and scores of security detail congregate in Atlanta to ensure the presidential debate went without a hitch. The event required the “highest level” of security, a former longtime Secret Service agent told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time.
The reason for that intense level of caution and security was on full display Saturday evening.
Secret Service agents acted immediately when shots rang out at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. Within seconds, a swarm of agents had surrounded the former president and he was whisked offsite immediately. His campaign says he is fine.
Details on the specific security measures at the Pennsylvania event were not immediately clear, but prior Trump rallies have featured metal detectors and other forms of screening and onsite measures. Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press the suspected shooter was outside the rally and was killed by Secret Service.
Heightened caution and law enforcement presence is expected before and during events featuring presidents, both current and former.
Atlanta Police Foundation President Dave Wilkinson, who previously spent 22 years with the Secret Service, told the AJC in June that the presidential debate in Atlanta required the “highest level” of security from a variety of law enforcement agencies.
“You not only have the Secret Service protecting the president and his family, but also the former president,” he said ahead of the June 27 debate.
Neither candidates’ arrival times and routes were released publicly before the event. Interstates were intermittently blocked for presidential convoys, and detours were in place for surface streets in Midtown near CNN.
Unprecedented security was also implemented in 2023 when Trump surrendered at the Fulton County jail on charges of interfering with the 2020 election. Security officials implemented a “hard lockdown” at the facility and its parking lot was cordoned off. Convoys of patrol cars also roamed the Perimeter, flashing blue lights to clear roads.
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
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