In an impressive bipartisan move, the House voted 450-0 to pass the Enhanced Presidential Security Act to give more protection to presidential candidate Donald Trump. The bill will now pass to the Senate for approval.
In July, an assassination attempt against Trump took the life of former fire chief Corey Comperatore and wounded two others. Investigations continue on how the perpetrator was able to get so close to President Trump. With the shock and backlash from this event, it’s hard to comprehend that a second close call occurred when a man with a gun was caught waiting for Trump on a golf course. After an exchange of shots with the Secret Service and an attempt to flee, the man was caught.
Republicans are not willing to keep taking chances with the safety of their nominee.
The bill — introduced by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Ritchie Torres (R-N.Y.) after the first assassination attempt — requires the Secret Service to “apply the same standards” for determining how many agents should be used to protect the president, vice president, and those running for those offices.
The Secret Service, however, claims that both Trump and Harris have the highest level of security already.
“President Biden made it clear that he wanted the highest levels of protection for former President Trump and for Vice President Harris. Secret Service moved to sustain increases in assets and the level of protection … and those things were in place yesterday,” acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told reporters Monday.
Presidential candidates have their Secret Service team supplemented by local law enforcement, while the military supports the sitting president’s security detail.
Trump has the same countersurveillance and countersniper teams afforded to sitting presidents, along with protective intelligence and drone teams. Still, the president travels with other non-Secret Service assets, including those related to the Department of Defense and the National Security Council.
However, there is a debate on whether or not funding is the issue, or manpower.
“We have got to get down to the bottom of this. We got to ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” Johnson said this week. “If they need additional funding, Congress will supply that. But we’re told it’s a manpower problem.”
If this is the highest level of security, Americans have reason for concern. The blame game and the excuses only make us look foolish and weak. The lives of presidential candidates aren’t usually threatened like this (except, of course, for the tragedy of then-Democratic nominee Robert F. Kennedy, who was gunned down in 1968). This should be a simple issue to solve, and it needs to be solved now.
See also:
NEW: Shocking Poll Finds 28 Percent of Democrats Wish Trump Had Been Assassinated
Hawley Releases ‘Highly Damaging’ Whistleblower Report on Shocking Failures of Secret Service, DHS
