Representative Eli Crane (R-AZ) suggested the Secret Service could fill its counter-sniper manpower gap with veteran snipers in a recent appearance on One America News Network's Matt Gaetz Show.
Rep. Crane posted the clip to X (formerly Twitter), saying, "Last night, I joined @mattgaetz on @OANN to discuss solutions to the alarming shortage of counter snipers in the Secret Service. The Secret Service cannot afford to be undermanned for their zero-fail missions. We also war-gamed the upcoming spending battle."
A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general found that the Secret Service's counter-sniper division was 73% understaffed, and the stringent requirements of the training program only exacerbate the problem.
Within the clip, Rep. Crane called the report "very exposing," adding that "these are questions that many of us were asking after the President almost got assassinated back in July of last year, and as I looked through the IG report, one of the things that struck me as the most interesting was that the pipeline to create a counter-sniper in the Secret Service was about three years long."
The Arizona Congressman drew upon his previous service as a Navy SEAL sniper, which required only three months of training. However, he also acknowledged that Secret Service counter-snipers "have to learn law enforcement and other things that we did not have to learn."
"But one of the things in this report showed that they were not willing to directly hire former military snipers," Crane continued, saying he would in this scenario "any day of the week."
Host Matt Gaetz asked Crane if he believed veteran snipers would be willing to sign up for the position, which he affirmed.
"And here is the thing I want to mention too," the Arizona Congressman added, "I do not want to put this on the new Director, Mr. [Sean] Curran, at all. He came into a complete mess created by the Biden Administration. I know that he is going to work with the IG to fill these gaps in these holes, but I do believe that many snipers that leave the service would love to come back, serve their country again, serve this amazing President and his administration again."
