President Joe Biden said Monday that the Secret Service “needs more help” following a possible assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Biden told reporters as he left the White House that more needs to be done, a day after the agency intercepted a gunman hiding near Trump’s Florida golf course, where the former president played.
“One thing I want to make clear is: The service needs more help. And I think Congress should meet their needs, Biden said.
The president added that the agency itself would “decide whether they need more staff or not.”
Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Monday that Congress is demanding that Trump have “every asset available to him” as part of his security clearance. This included providing additional resources if needed, although Johnson cautioned that he did not think it was necessarily a “funding issue”.
“President Trump needs the most coverage of anyone. He is the most attacked. He’s the most threatened,” Johnson said, chalking it up to a “division of labor.”
The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny since a Trump campaign rally in July in Butler County, Pennsylvania. A gunman with an automatic weapon climbed onto the roof of a building just a few hundred meters from where Trump was protesting and opened fire, wounding the former president, killing one and several others.
Republicans cried foul that the agency failed in its mission, and its head resigned days later. Biden then authorized more protection for both Trump and the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. Both Biden and Harris condemned Sunday’s incident.
“Thank God the president is fine,” Biden said Monday.
Law enforcement officials said agents opened fire after a gun was spotted at a West Palm Beach track on Sunday. The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, was taken into custody a short time later and was expected to be arraigned on Monday.
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
