17 Sep 2024
Source: Washington post
Biden urges Congress to increase Secret Service funding and staffing after a potential second assassination attempt on Trump raises security concerns.
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The Secret Service is facing new scrutiny after a gunman came within range of former president Trump for the second time in less than 10 weeks on Sunday, raising concerns about whether the elite protective agency is stretched too thin in a politically polarized nation where many people have ready access to guns.
“Thank God the president’s OK,” President Joe Biden said Monday to reporters. “One thing I want to make clear: The service needs more help.”
Biden declined to provide additional details about the agency’s needs but urged Congress to consider increasing the agency’s funding and allowing it to hire more staff.
Secret Service agents’ quick actions likely prevented Sunday’s incident in Florida from escalating, law-enforcement officials said. Authorities quickly detained Ryan Wesley Routh and charged him Monday with two gun-related crimes at a federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, Fla.
But the latest potential attempt on Trump’s life happened before the agency, Congress, and other oversight bodies had completed their assessment of the security breakdowns ahead of the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania. In that incident, a gunman armed with an AR-style weapon climbed atop an unmonitored roof and fired several shots at a campaign rally, killing one attendee and injuring others, including Trump.
Multiple federal investigations are underway into the July 13 attack, including a 60-day “mission assurance” review by the Secret Service, an independent investigation ordered by Biden and the Department of Homeland Security that is expected to conclude in early October, as well as probes by Congress and the DHS Inspector General, the agency’s internal watchdog.
The Secret Service plans to launch another mission assurance review of Sunday’s attack, though it has not yet published the findings of its July 13 internal review, said agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
The Washington Post reported last week that the internal review had confirmed security failures that led to the July assassination attempt, including that the service never directed local police to secure the roof of the building used by the gunman. Agency officials said they increased equipment and personnel for Trump and other protectees — more than 40 officials and their family members — in response to the attack.
In contrast, the Secret Service won praise for its handling of Sunday’s incident.
A sharp-eyed agent scouting ahead as Trump golfed at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach spotted a gun barrel poking through a tree-shaded chain-link fence and opened fire, giving the team accompanying the former president time to rush him to safety.
Rep. Bill Keating, a Democrat from Massachusetts who investigated the government’s failure to prevent the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, said in an interview Monday that Congress and others should increase the Secret Service’s resources and beef up its policies and procedures to allow it to more quickly identify and neutralize threats.
He said officials should consider surging resources to protectees such as Trump based on the threat levels they are facing, and not on whether they are a sitting president or only a candidate for office. He said lawmakers also should consider jettisoning some of the agency’s nonprotective duties, such as investigating some financial crimes.
“The index for increased violence is clearly going up,” Keating said.
He said Congress should urgently examine the agency’s needs and resources, as well as its organizational structure.
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