The US Secret Service was facing renewed scrutiny on Monday after a second assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump in two months.
President Joe Biden, responding to the latest attack on the Republican White House candidate, said the agency charged with protecting high-profile officials “needs more help.”
The Secret Service has been reeling since an assassin’s bullet grazed the 78-year-old Trump’s ear during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned 10 days later, acknowledging that the agency had “failed” its protective mission.
At least five Secret Service agents have reportedly been placed on leave pending the completion of an internal Secret Service review of security lapses.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department overseas the Secret Service, said the review will examine actions before, during and after the shooting to identify measures needed to ensure the agency’s “no fail mission of protecting national leaders.”
The 20-year-old Butler gunman, who was perched on the roof of a nearby building with a clear sightline of the stage, opened fire on Trump with an AR-style rifle just minutes after the former president began to speak.
He was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper within 15 seconds of firing the first of eight shots.
On Sunday, the Secret Service thwarted another apparent attempt to shoot the former president — this time while he was playing golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
According to the FBI, a Secret Service agent on the former president’s security detail saw what appeared to be the barrel of a rifle pointing out of a tree line on the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Course.
The agent fired in the direction of the rifle and the alleged assailant, later identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, fled in a vehicle.
He was arrested 45 minutes later and was charged with gun crimes at a first court appearance on Monday.
– ‘Up their level of protection’ –
Trump thanked the Secret Service for thwarting Sunday’s attack but some of his Republican allies called for the agency to ramp up its protective detail for the former president.
“There have been TWO attempts on Trump’s life,” said Steve Scalise, the Republican House Majority leader. “Secret Service must up their level of protection of him to their FULL capabilities — including expanding the perimeter.”
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw defended the Secret Service’s response, stating that if Trump had been the current president “we would have had this entire golf course surrounded.”
“But because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible,” he said. “The Secret Service did exactly what they should have done. They provided exactly what the protection should have been.”
Acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe said that after the July 13 shooting that the agency planned to increase its use of surveillance drones but it was not immediately known if a drone was in the air over the golf course on Sunday.
The Secret Service provides lifelong protection for current and former presidents and vice presidents, their families and the children of former presidents up to the age of 16.
Its agents also provide security for foreign heads of state and government on official visits to the United States, or for major national or international events.
Originally set up to combat counterfeit currencies, the agency was entrusted with protecting senior US leaders and their families following the assassination of president William McKinley in 1901.
To this day, the Secret Service continues to play a role in protecting the US financial system, including by investigating counterfeit money and digital fraud.
The agency has over 6,500 personnel, about half of whom are special agents, famous for their dark glasses, suits, earpieces and serious expressions.
For most of its history since being created in 1865, the agency was part of the Treasury Department.
But in 2003, it was moved under the newly created Department of Homeland Security.
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