Trump assassination attempt task force calls for ramped up resources for Secret Service ahead of Election Day

WASHINGTON — The House task force now investigating a pair of assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump says the Secret Service needs greater resources with fewer than 50 days to Election Day, with federal officials citing a heightened threat environment after a would-be assassin was arrested in Florida Sunday almost two months after a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pa.

"They claim they don't have enough personnel they can put in place," U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, who chairs the task force, told Fox News Monday morning.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., the task force's ranking member, told Fox News that even if Secret Service followed protocol in Florida — where agents shot at an armed man in shrubbery just outside one of the Republican nominee's golf courses while Trump was golfing — the question remains: "Are there actually enough resources to get the job done?"

Especially, he said, when threats against members of Congress have "quadrupled" and threats against presidential candidates have "skyrocketed."

"The Secret Service told us very clearly last week that they are red-lined," Crow said. "They are working overtime, double-overtime. These folks are burning out. They need new resources. We need to get them help so they can do the job the American people expect them to do."

The increased calls for additional Secret Service resources — which President Joe Biden joined Monday morning — come as the bipartisan 13-member task force seeks a briefing with the agency about "what happened and how security responded" in Florida.

It also comes as the Secret Service, FBI and Department of Homeland Security have already been under considerable pressure for accountability around the security lapses that led to the Butler shooting.

"There's going to be reports and recommendations coming forward, and Congress will act swiftly," House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News on Monday, noting the task force and a Senate committee are likely to hold more hearings this month. "We need accountability. We must demand that this job is being done. I think there are some ... really patriotic, great people working in the Secret Service, but it's the leadership. We have no faith."

The Secret Service did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

On Sunday, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was spotted pointing a scoped AK-style rifle into the golf course as the former president played one hole away with staffers and friends on the West Palm Beach course.

Secret Service agents fired at Routh, who was later arrested and now faces federal gun charges. Routh, according to a self-published book, previously supported Trump before later describing him as a "fool" and writing that Iran is "free to assassinate" him, the Associated Press reported.

Ric Bradshaw, the Palm Beach County Sheriff, told reporters that the entire golf course would have been surrounded if Trump was the sitting president. But at his current security protection level, the Secret Service covers the area it "deems possible."

"The Secret Service did exactly what they should have done," he said. "They provided exactly what the protection should have been."

Trump, in a post on Truth Social, thanked the sheriff, Secret Service and other law enforcement at Trump International Golf Course who kept him safe. "The job was done absolutely outstanding. I am very proud to be an American!" he said.

Kelly said the fact that Trump is not only a former president but the Republican nominee should lead to "greater coverage" by authorities.

"We keep hearing they don't have enough men, they don't have enough money, and I think that's absolutely true, by the way — how that money is deployed needs to be taken a look at," he said.

But Kelly, who commended Secret Service agents for apparently curtailing an attack Sunday, also focused on key differences in the Butler shooting and the thwarted attempt in Florida. How Routh came to know about Trump's whereabouts Sunday was troubling, Kelly suggested.

"One was a very public event ... and you look at yesterday's attempt, this was private, the former president going out golfing," he said. "How in the world do we get to the point where we have shooters at both places, one who knows all about it because it's so public, and another where ... it's an entirely different venue."

Both Kelly and Crow said it appears the Secret Service failed in planning or protocols in Butler on July 13, when 20-year-old Bethel Park gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight rounds from a rooftop outside the rally's security perimeter, wounding Trump and two others and killing former firefighter Corey Comperatore.

"We need to take a look at who's talking to whom about what and what is it that they're talking about when it comes to whomever is going to be protected that day," said Kelly, who previously told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he would zero in on planning and potential failures that can be prevented in the future.

Crow said that he and Kelly "unequivocally condemn this most recent attempt."

"Political violence has no place in our country and republicans and Democrats must come together and say, 'This is unacceptable,'" he said. "We settle our issues with debate and discourse in America and we really have to focus on that, and every leader has to be really clear about it."

Kelly, who said the investigation wasn't about partisan politics, described rhetoric this election season as at "a fever pitch."

Both Democrats and Republicans have condemned the attempts on Trump's life.

Some Republicans, though, including Trump, have suggested that Democrats or the Biden administration may be to blame. A Republican-led group of lawmakers not on the bipartisan task force is conducting its own inquiry, and has suggested that "criminal negligence" or worse was involved in the Butler attack.

"I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things they say about me," Trump said during last week's debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, referencing the Butler shooting.

The FBI in that case has not found any evidence of a motive or co-conspirators. The agency also has noted on multiple occasions that Crooks researched both Democratic and Republican events and did not appear to lean one way or another politically.

Harris said on X that she had been briefed on the incident in Florida and that she was "glad (Trump) is safe. Violence has no place in America."

Biden told reporters outside the White House Monday that, "One thing I want to make clear is: The Secret Service needs more help. And I think Congress should respond to their need."

"Thank God the president's OK," he added.

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