Secret Service officials repeatedly denied requests for additional resources made by former President Donald Trump’s detail prior to the July 13 assassination attempt, the Washington Post reported.
Trump was slightly wounded in the right ear on July 13 when a gunman fired multiple shots during the attempted assassination at the Butler County, Pennsylvania, rally, killing former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore and wounding two other attendees. The Post reported that for at least two years prior to the deadly incident, Trump’s detail was denied resources, including counter-sniper teams for a 2023 appearance in Pickens, South Carolina, where a number of buildings surrounded Trump’s stage.
Once again Mayorkas has MISLED the public.
On CNN he called my statement that President Trump’s detail was DENIED repeated requests for stronger secret service protection “an irresponsible statement that is unequivocally false”.
Now WaPo is citing officials that I was CORRECT,… https://t.co/jPWYzLntWb
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) July 20, 2024
“It’s just true — we don’t have the resources to secure him [Trump] like we did when he was president,” one official told the Washington Post, which reported that events involving President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were competing for resources last week. Agents were also involved in advance work for the Republican National Convention, according to the Post.
One former Secret Service agent placed the blame on top leaders for the resource shortage.
“I hate to dumb it down this much but it is a simple case of supply and demand. The requests get turned down routinely,” retired Secret Service agent Bill Gage told the Post. “A director has to finally come forward to say we are way understaffed and we cannot possibly continue with this zero fail mission without a significantly bigger budget.”
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray Thursday, saying that whistleblowers have informed his committee that Trump’s detail was short-handed due to the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. and Jill Biden’s campaign event in Pittsburgh. Wray is slated to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Since the July 13 assassination attempt, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received Secret Service protection after it was previously denied.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has faced multiple calls for her resignation and is expected to testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing investigating security lapses at the July 13 rally Monday.
Trump survived an assassination attempt during his 2016 campaign for the White House during a campaign event in Las Vegas, when a 20-year-old man tried to take a police officer’s gun to shoot the then-presumptive GOP nominee during a June 2016 campaign event in Las Vegas.
(Featured image credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)
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