President Joe Biden said Monday that the Secret Service “needs more help” after the possible attempted assassination of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Biden told reporters as he left the White House that more must be done a day after the agency thwarted a shooter who had hidden himself near Trump’s Florida golf course, where the former president was playing.
“One thing I want to make clear is: The Service needs more help. And I think Congress should respond to their need,” Biden said.
The president added that the agency itself would “decide whether they need more personnel or not.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, during a “Fox & Friends” interview on Monday, said the House will demand that Trump “have every asset available” as part of his security detail. That included making more resources available if needed, though Johnson cautioned he doesn’t think it’s necessarily a “funding issue.”
“President Trump needs the most coverage of anyone. He’s the most attacked. He’s the most threatened,” Johnson said, chalking it up to an issue of “man-power allocation.”
The Secret Service has come under intense scrutiny since the shooting at a Trump campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in July. A shooter with an automatic weapon climbed the roof of a building just a few hundred yards from a Trump rally site and opened fire, wounding the former president, killing one person and injuring several others.
Republicans howled that the agency failed in its job, and its director resigneddays 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 ok,” Biden said Monday.
Law enforcement officials said agents opened fire after the gun was spotted along the West Palm Beach course on Sunday. The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, was taken into custody a short time later, and an arraignment was expected Monday.
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
