约翰·奥利弗谈特勤局：“他们的工作风险极高，但人力和资源方面却长期处于令人担忧的紧张状态。” 图片：《今夜最后时刻》节目主持人深入探讨了困扰特勤局的各种问题，从资金短缺到封闭的组织文化。在最新一期的《今夜最后时刻》节目中，约翰·奥利弗聚焦了负责保护美国总统等重任的特勤局。“特工们的工作充满高风险，也正因如此，种种迹象表明特勤局正面临可能是其历史上最具挑战性的时期之一，这一点尤其令人担忧。”主持人指出。
他提到2028年，一些特工称之为“世界末日”的年份，因为届时特勤局将同时负责洛杉矶奥运会和残奥会、联合国年度大会，以及两位总统候选人及其家人在选举期间的安保工作。
John Oliver on the Secret Service: ‘For as high as the stakes of their job are, they’ve consistently been stretched worryingly thin in terms of manpower and resources.’Photograph The Last Week Tonight host looked into the issues plaguing the Secret Service, from lack of funds to an insular culture n the latest Last Week Tonight, John Oliver looked into the Secret Service tasked with protecting the US president among many other things. “Agents have a high-stakes job, and that’s what makes it so worrisome that by all accounts the Secret Service is heading into what might be one of its most challenging periods yet,” the host noted, referring to 2028, or what some agents have called “Armageddon”, as the service will be tasked with staffing the LA Olympics and Paralympics, the annual United Nations general assembly and the two presidential candidates and their families during the election.
因此，特勤局邀请动作片巨擘迈克尔·贝执导超级碗招聘广告也就不足为奇了。广告中宣称“守护者是天生的，而非后天造就的”，并使用了2024年7月在宾夕法尼亚州巴特勒县集会时拍摄的照片——当时特朗普的耳朵中枪。“这显然不是他们值得骄傲的时刻，不是吗？”奥利弗评论道。“在最低谷时选择用这样的画面来自我宣传，确实有些奇怪。”
No wonder, then, that the Secret Service recruited none other than action movie impresario Michael Bay to direct a recruitment ad for the Super Bowl asserting that “protectors are born, not made” and including a photo from the July 2024 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was shot in the ear. “That is not exactly a triumphant moment for them, is it?”Oliver noted. “It’s a bit odd to choose to self-promote using an image of yourself at your lowest.”
鉴于种种问题，奥利弗深入剖析了这家备受困扰的机构所面临的诸多挑战，首先便是其“不祥”的起源：该机构由亚伯拉罕·林肯创立，而就在林肯于福特剧院观看演出时遭约翰·威尔克斯·布斯暗杀前几小时，他刚刚签署了授权成立该机构的法案。事实上，特勤局特工最初的任务是打击假钞。直到20世纪早期，在詹姆斯·A·加菲尔德和威廉·麦金莱遇刺之后，他们才开始担任总统的贴身保镖。
Given all of that, Oliver delved into the many issues facing the beleaguered agency, beginning with its “inauspicious” origin story: the agency was formed by Abraham Lincoln, who signed legislation authorizing it mere hours before he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while attending a show at Ford’s Theatre. Secret Service agents were, in fact, originally tasked with cracking down on counterfeit paper money. It was only in the early 20th century, after the assassinations of James A Garfield and William McKinley, that they became bodyguards to the president.
如今的美国特勤局特工负责总统安保工作，但从技术上讲，打击假币犯罪仍然是特勤局职责的重要组成部分。来自全美115个实地办公室的特工还负责抓捕信用卡盗刷者、爱情骗子以及实施其他低级金融犯罪的人。“这简直令人难以置信，”奥利弗说，“这就像遭遇一场严重的车祸，结果却被瑞安·西克莱斯特救下——等等，这也是你们的工作之一？你们可真是身兼数职。”
Moderns Secret Service agents now provide presidential protection, though technically, counterfeiting investigations are still an important part of the Secret Service mandate, and agents from 115 field offices across the country are also tasked with catching credit card skimmers, romance scammers and other low-level financial crimes. “Which is kind of incredible,” said Oliver. “It’s like getting in a bad car accident and getting saved by Ryan Seacrest – hold on, this is one of your jobs, too? You’re taking a lot on.
“有些特工会坚持认为，正是这些调查工作让他们保持头脑敏锐，也有助于与地方执法部门建立关系，”他补充道，“但即便如此，这些任务仍然让他们不堪重负，尤其是当他们的‘盘子’已经装得满满当当时。”特工的安保职责不仅涵盖总统本人，还包括其家人、副总统、前总统及其配偶、来访的外国国家或政府首脑、重要外国访客、主要的总统和副总统候选人等。
“Some agents will insist that those investigations are what keep their minds sharp, and that it can also help establish relationships with local law enforcement,” he added. “But that is still a lot to be putting on their plate, especially when that plate is already pretty full.”
这项工作的难度极高：不仅需要提前数小时准备，还要忍受漫长而严苛的轮班，同时还要承受随时可能为某人挡子弹的心理压力。然而，他们的薪水却受到联邦薪资上限的限制，加班时间也常常得不到报酬。
Agents’ protective duty extends not just to the president but their family, the vice-president, former presidents and spouses, visiting heads of foreign states or governments, distinguished foreign visitors, major presidential and vice-presidential candidates and more. The job can be very difficult, requiring hours of advance work and punishingly long shifts on top of the psychological burden of being ready to take a bullet for someone, yet with salaries subject to a federal cap, and overtime hours often worked for free.
“尽管他们的工作风险极高，但他们在人力和资源方面却长期处于严重不足的状态，”奥利弗说，“这体现在该机构一句非官方的口号上——‘以更少资源，做更多事情’。例如，为了训练，他们并没有建造一座白宫的全尺寸复制品，而是让特工们前往亚特兰大，在一座由泰勒·派瑞建造、仅达80%比例的白宫模型中进行练习。”
“For as high as the stakes of their job are, they’ve consistently been stretched worryingly thin in terms of manpower and resources,” said Oliver, manifesting in an unofficial agency slogan “we do more with less.”Rather than build a full-scale replica White House for training, for example, agents have been sent to practice on an 80% scale version in Atlanta, built as a TV set by Tyler Perry.
“因此，该机构经常处于极度超负荷的状态，而且这种情况甚至在他们职责不断增多的情况下也依然存在，”奥利弗说道。在上届总统选举期间，特勤局特工必须24小时保护43人，而特朗普一家出行的次数是奥巴马一家的十二倍。“如果特朗普家族中有任何成员正在观看这段视频，并且第一次得知自己的家人在没有他们的情况下已经进行了超过1600次旅行，那么，无论你是谁，埃里克，我真的很抱歉你不得不以这种方式得知这个消息，”奥利弗打趣道。
“So the agency is often stretched extremely thin, and that’s happened even as their duties have increased,” said Oliver. During the last presidential election, Secret Service agents were tasked with protection of 43 individuals around the clock, and the Trump family has taken twelve times more family trips than the Obama family. “And if there’s any member of the Trump family watching this right now who’s learning for the first time that the rest of your family has been taking over 1,600 trips without you, then I’m truly sorry you had to find out this way whoever you are, Eric,” Oliver quipped.
“重点在于，该机构显然承受着巨大压力，但即便如此，也还无法完全解释那些难以解释的失误数量——自奥巴马总统任期开始以来，这些失误的发生频率一直在加速，”奥利弗继续说道。“当然，那确实是一个他们的任务变得困难得多的时刻，”因为当时针对总统的威胁数量增加了400%。“如果你不知道为什么从这位总统到那位总统，暴力威胁会突然增加，”他接着在乔治·W·布什和奥巴马的照片旁补充道，“那我有个有趣的消息要告诉你：你是个骗子。
“The point is, the agency is clearly under significant strain, but even that doesn’t completely account for the number of inexplicable fuck-ups there have been, which have happened at an accelerating rate ever since the start of the Obama presidency,” Oliver continued. “Now that was a moment where admittedly, their job did become much more difficult,” as the agency experienced a 400% increase in the number of threats against the president. “And if you do not know why violent threats went up from this guy to this guy,” he added next to photos of George W Bush and then Obama, “I’ve got some interesting news for you: you are a liar.
“随着威胁不断上升，你可能会认为该机构应该处于高度戒备状态。正因如此，他们出现的一系列安全漏洞和丑闻才显得如此奇怪——这些事件早已被人遗忘，比如2014年一名男子带刀翻越白宫围栏并成功进入大楼，当时前门甚至没有上锁。或者，或许更令人难堪的是，2011年哥伦比亚发生的一起涉及性工作者的丑闻，导致总统行踪信息泄露，暴露出该机构内部根深蒂固的文化问题。”
“And with threats on the rise, you’d think the agency would’ve been on high alert. Which is what makes it so weird that they had a number of security breaches and scandals” long forgotten, like a man who in 2014 scaled the White House fence with a knife and made it into the building, as the front doors weren’t locked. Or, perhaps more humiliating, a scandal involving a sex worker in Colombia in 2011 that compromised information about the president’s whereabouts, revealing systemic culture issues within the agency.
“所有这些问题——过度劳累、人手严重不足、资源有限，以及一些极其糟糕的判断——最终在宾夕法尼亚州的巴特勒市集中爆发，”奥利弗解释道。除了当天发生的诸多错误之外——其中包括未能守住邻近建筑（枪手正是从那里登上了屋顶），以及因技术故障和缺乏以太网线缆而未能对区域进行反无人机防护——一份报告还发现，该机构当年的加班时间累计达120万小时，特工们连续工作、几乎没有休息时间，这加剧了他们的职业倦怠和人员流失。
“All of this – an exhausted workforce stretched way too thin, limited resources and some truly poor judgment – all came to a head in Butler, Pennsylvania,” Oliver explained. On top of the many, many errors made that day – among them, not securing the building next door where the shooter went on to the roof, and not drone-proofing the area due to a technical glitch and lack of ethernet cables – a report found that agents had racked up 1.2m overtime hours that year with consecutive shifts and little recuperative rest, contributing to burnout and attrition.
一项对该机构的独立审查得出结论：该机构“需要进行根本性改革才能完成其使命……没有这种改革，另一个‘巴特勒事件’完全可能再次发生”。
An independent review of the service concluded that the agency “requires fundamental reform to carry out its mission … without that reform, another Butler can and will happen again”.
因此，奥利弗呼吁增加预算并更明智地使用资金，但他同时指出，正如报告中所说，即便拥有无限预算，也无法避免另一个“巴特勒事件”的发生。
Oliver thus called for a larger budget spent more wisely, but noted that, as stated in the report, even an unlimited budget would not prevent another Butler.
“这是因为，当一个问题如此根深蒂固且涉及文化层面时，就需要更深入的干预措施，”他总结道。“坦白说，这项工作理想情况下需要极其勇敢且技艺高超的人。就我个人而言，我既无法也不应该从事这份工作。但正因它如此重要，该机构围绕‘以更少资源做更多事’而形成的封闭文化，不仅让相关特工精疲力竭，甚至可能带来真正的鲁莽风险。”
“And that is because when a problem is this persistent and cultural, it needs a much deeper level of intervention,” he concluded. “Look, this job ideally requires people who are incredibly brave and incredibly skilled. It’s a job that I personally could not and should not do. But the very fact that it’s such an important job means that the agency having an insular culture built around doing more with less isn’t just exhausting for the agents involved. It can be actively reckless.”