Senate Republicans seethed Monday after former President Trump was subject to what authorities said was another assassination attempt and questioned why Secret Service protection has not been beefed up even more since the shooting in Butler, Pa., two months ago.
GOP lawmakers returned to the Capitol angry and upset, and pointed fingers at the Secret Service for not having a sufficient security presence around the former president and GOP presidential nominee.
“They’re going to eventually get the guy killed,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), one of Trump’s most ardent backers in the upper chamber.
“You hate to say it, but what this looks like is an intentional [act] of not funding what they should fund to help him. I hope nothing happens,” Tuberville said, arguing that the issue is both about manpower allocation and funding.
The Alabama Republican also noted that while it is important for the agency to protect the dozens of prominent officials and individuals under its security purview, Trump has to be a priority with less than two months before the election.
“Sooner or later, you’ve got to look at the guy who’s a former president that’s running for president again. The Republican nominee has already been shot once,” Tuberville continued. “Wake up. We’re leaking oil here.”
The Secret Service faced enormous blowback in July after a gunman at a rally in western Pennsylvania succeeded in striking the president’s ear. Officials faced questions both on the inadequate security at the rally site and the lack of information provided in the immediate aftermath. Then-Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned following a disastrous appearance before a House committee.
On Monday, Republicans were quick to note that their concerns center on the lack of security in situations such as when the former president is on a golf course within view of the public, and not on the agents themselves.
They praised the agent who spotted the muzzle of a rifle from hundreds of yards away. That agent opened fire and the suspected gunman, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, fled and was apprehended soon after.
The Secret Service itself said its systems worked as designed to protect Trump.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe on Monday said that Trump is receiving the highest level of protection and that the system in place around him is working, pointing to the agent’s ability to locate the would-be assassin and nix any attack.
“The former president’s protective apparatus allowed for the early identification of the threat and led to a safe evacuation. The increased assets directed by President Biden were in place yesterday,” Rowe said.
But after the twin events, lawmakers are fed up and are pleading for some change.
“It’s like — what is going on? And is anyone safe?” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who is still lamenting the lack of answers from relevant agencies about the July assassination attempt against the former president.
“This is ridiculous. The guy has another assassination attempt and we’re still slow-walking the one from two months ago?” Hawley continued.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) created a panel to study what went wrong in Butler, Pa. That committee has a Dec. 13 deadline to issue a report. The Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees also had a joint committee hearing on the failures in Butler in late July.
Leaders across party lines are also backing the calls for something to be done.
President Biden told reporters that the Secret Service “needs more help” and that members of Congress “should respond to their need.” Johnson, who was with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort before he went to the golf course, told Fox News on Monday that the lower chamber will push for the former president to “have every asset available” for his security detail.
“President Trump needs the most coverage of anyone. He’s the most attacked. He’s the most threatened,” Johnson said, adding that the issue in his mind is “manpower allocation” at the Secret Service.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also said during his floor remarks he is open to including additional resources for the Secret Service as part of the pending package to fund the government at the end of the month.
“We all must do our part to ensure an incident like this does not happen again,” Schumer said.
Lawmakers are widely expected to pass a stopgap spending bill, but other details outside of that are unknown, including how long it will last and whether any other legislation will ride alongside it.
But whether a new batch of funding for the Secret Service will do much good this close to the election is in question for some members.
“They can’t train a Secret Service agent in two weeks,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said.
“There’s so many unanswered questions on this,” Kennedy said, taking aim at the agency. “Stop the dodging and the bobbing and the weaving and the excuses and the dog ate my homework, and just say look, here’s what happened. Here’s why we missed a guy crawling around for a long time on a roof with a rifle. Here’s why we missed a guy who hung out for 12 hours around a golf course where the former president was playing.”
And no matter the situation, lawmakers close to Trump concede that playing golf at his course, parts of which are not shielded from public view, is a calculated risk.
“It’s still a risk for him to play golf. He knows that,” said Tuberville, who noted he has played that course with Trump numerous times. “I know exactly where the guy was at.”
“It’s a chore for the president to play golf for the Secret Service,” he added. “They could use more people inside and outside.”