The Secret Service was protecting former President Donald Trump with presidential-level coverage during a second apparent assassination attempt against him on Sept. 15, lawmakers told reporters in Washington after receiving a briefing from the Secret Service on Sept. 18.
“He had the same coverage as sitting president as he had last Sunday,” Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), who is chairing the House task force probing the first assassination attempt against Trump, told reporters on Capitol Hill.
“I came away today feeling that the Secret Service on this past Sunday was treating it the same way as when President Trump was the sitting president.”
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), the top Democrat on the task force, said that the coverage “was commensurate with presidential-level security and actually the same package of same security that he would have had—and did have—when he was the sitting president.”
A Hawaii resident named Ryan Wesley Routh was allegedly lying in wait for Trump at the former president’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15 when the Secret Service spotted his gun and fired toward him, according to the agency and the FBI. Routh fled. He was later apprehended, and officials recovered a rifle with a scope, two backpacks, and a GoPro camera at the golf course.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said in a briefing on Sept. 15 that Trump did not receive the protection he would have if he were the president.
“The level where he is at right now, he is not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had the entire golf course surrounded, but because he’s not, security is limited to the areas the Secret Service deems possible,” Bradshaw said.
Republicans plan to introduce a bill that would require the Secret Service to give the same level of protection to Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as President Joe Biden. Trump is the Republican nominee for president and Democrats picked Harris as the Democratic nominee after Biden dropped out of the race.
No comments:
Post a Comment