President Biden announced Monday that the Secret Service requires additional support after a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump occurred on Sunday.
“One thing I want to make clear is: The Service needs more help. And I think Congress should respond to their need,” Biden said as he departed the White House for a trip to Philadelphia.
“Thank God the president is OK,” Biden added regarding his former adversary.
The retiring incumbent emphasized that the Secret Service “may decide whether they need more personnel or not.”
The alleged gunman, Ryan Wesley Routh, was arrested Sunday after being found hiding with an AK-47-style rifle in the bushes near Trump’s West Palm Beach, Fla., golf course while Trump was playing a round. A Secret Service advance officer fired at Routh, causing him to flee before he was later taken into custody.
Routh had echoed anti-Trump rhetoric similar to that of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on social media. In April, he posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “DEMOCRACY is on the ballot, and we cannot lose.”
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw explained at a Sunday press conference that Trump’s security detail was lighter because he is not the current commander-in-chief. “At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course secured. But because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible,” Bradshaw said.
Federal and local law enforcement will likely investigate how Routh allegedly knew Trump would be at his West Palm Beach golf club on Sunday.
“I would imagine that the next time he comes to a golf course, there’ll probably be more people around the perimeter. But the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done,” Bradshaw added.
This incident follows a previous assassination attempt on July 13, where Trump’s ear was grazed by a bullet during a rally in Butler, Pa. The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, had climbed onto an unguarded roof less than 150 yards from Trump, leading to bipartisan outrage over the security lapses.
In response to these events, Trump’s allies in Congress are now demanding an increased security force to protect him ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
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