The second assassination attempt on Donald Trump sparked calls from President Joe Biden and lawmakers to bolster the Secret Service protection for the former president with either more resources, strategic changes or more agency oversight.
Senators on the appropriations panel that oversees the Secret Service funding, in the wake of the first attempt in July, already had asked for information about whether the agency needed more money to protect candidates in the 2024 election.
Biden suggested the agency needed more resources Monday morning, when the suspect in Sunday’s attempted assassination made a court appearance in Florida on two firearm charges.
“One thing I want to make clear is: the Service needs more help,” Biden told reporters. “And I think Congress should respond to their need.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who was shot in 2017 during a congressional baseball game practice, was among House Republicans who called for protection for Trump to match the current president.
“Authorities just acknowledged if President Trump was president, they’d do more to protect him,” Scalise wrote on social media. “This must change. There have been TWO attempts on Trump’s life. Secret Service must up their level of protection of him to their FULL capabilities — including expanding the perimeter.”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York said Monday he’s willing to consider a Secret Service funding boost as part of a spending resolution to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month.
“Congress has a responsibility to ensure the Secret Service and all law enforcement have the resources they need to do their job,” Schumer said in a floor speech. “So as we continue the appropriations process, if the Secret Service is in need of more resources, we are… prepared to provide it for them, possibly in the upcoming funding agreement.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Monday he wants the Secret Service to step up its efforts, but denied more funding was the answer.
“President Trump needs the most coverage of anyone,” Johnson said on Fox & Friends. “He’s the most attacked, he’s the most threatened, even probably more than when he was in the Oval Office. So we are demanding in the House that he have every asset available and we will make more available if necessary. I don’t think it’s a funding issue. I think it’s a manpower allocation.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., on the other hand, posted on social media that the House should demand more information and put the question of more funding for the Secret Service on the floor without delay.
“Two assassination attempts in 60 days on a former President & the Republican nominee is unacceptable,” Khanna said. “The Secret Service must come to Congress tomorrow, tell us what resources are needed to expand the protective perimeter, & let’s allocate it in a bipartisan vote the same day.”
The fiscal 2025 Homeland Security appropriations bill already stalled in the Senate at least partially because of increased scrutiny of the Secret Service’s budget.
The Secret Service told the top Senate appropriators on homeland security — Democrat Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Katie Britt of Alabama — that the security failure at the first Trump assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., wasn’t the result of its budget, although the agency wouldn’t shut the door on the additional funds.
More information sought
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., issued a report on Monday based on information he says he’s collected from whistleblowers saying the agency suffers from “a compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and gross incompetence that goes back years.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sounded the alarm last Thursday when, after a closed-door meeting, he said the American public will be “shocked” and “appalled” when lawmakers release their interim report on the assassination attempt.
The bipartisan task force charged with examining the failure to protect Trump at the Butler rally — led by Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Jason Crow, D-Colo. — issued a joint statement calling on the Secret Service to come before Congress to address the situation.
“We have requested a briefing with the U.S. Secret Service about what happened and how security responded,” Kelly and Crow said. “We are thankful that the former President was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms.”
Meanwhile, Trump in the aftermath of the second attempt on his life during the election has placed the blame on Kamala Harris, accusing his Democratic opponent of dangerously elevating political rhetoric (an accusation frequently leveled at Trump himself).
Trump in a social media post on Monday blamed Democrats and Harris for creating the political environment that led to the attack on him, while also impugning the ABC News moderators in the recent debate he was widely seen to have lost.
“The Rhetoric, Lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate, and all of the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to inflict damage on Joe’s, then Kamala’s, Political Opponent, ME, has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust. Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” Trump said.
Harris, in her own statement, said she is “deeply disturbed by the possible assassination attempt of former President Trump today.”
“As we gather the facts, I will be clear: I condemn political violence,” Harris said. “We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.”
Arrest details
The man arrested in connection with the incident, Ryan Routh, made an initial appearance Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on gun charges — possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
A Secret Service agent assigned to Trump’s detail was walking the perimeter of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach and saw what appeared to be a rifle poking out of the tree line, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Monday.
The agent fired a gun in the direction of the rifle at about 1:31 p.m., and a witness saw a man flee the area and enter a Nissan sport utility vehicle that left the area at a high rate of speed, the complaint states.
Agents found a loaded rifle with a scope and an obliterated and unreadable serial number, along with a digital camera, a backpack and a plastic bag with food, the complaint states.
County officers stopped the Nissan and asked Routh if he knew why he was being stopped, and “he responded in the affirmative,” the complaint states. The license plate on the Nissan is registered to a 2012 white Ford truck and has been reported stolen, the complaint states.
The witness identified Routh as the man who got into the Nissan, and an investigation found Routh’s mobile phone was located Sunday in the vicinity of the gun from about 1:59 a.m. to 1:31 p.m., the complaint states.
Routh in North Carolina was convicted in 2002 of possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction and was convicted in 2010 of multiple counts of possession of stolen goods, which are both felonies, the complaint states.
John T. Bennett and David Lerman contributed to this report.
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