CNN anchor Jake Tapper emphasized on Tuesday the extraordinary circumstances of the clandestine operation in Turkey.
“Obviously the life of the president is paramount, and previous White Houses have used deception to protect the president’s life,” he said in a post on X. “But no officials I’ve spoken to have ever before heard of using an [Air Force One] full of [White House] staff and journalists as a decoy during an imminent threat.”
Ronald L. Rowe Jr., a former acting director of the Secret Service, told the Post that, if the President’s location is kept secret, it is for a reason.
“We need to keep the ‘secret’ in Secret Service,” Rowe told the news outlet. “The public should know what the president is doing on a daily basis, but when it comes to the methods by which the Secret Service keeps the president safe, that should remain out of public view.”
Robert McDonald, who worked with the Secret Service for more than two decades, told TIME that the operation in Turkey appears to be a result of real-time improvisation by the President’s security team. He also cast doubt on the idea that the journalists who were on the former Air Force One were left at risk.
