A new investigation finds that the federal government has prosecuted more than 1,400 cases of threats against the president.
The statement comes after former President Donald Trump, who witnessed an alleged second attempt on himself on Sunday, claimed that Democrats’ exaggerated rhetoric led to him being threatened.
Documents show that threats are part of the office he once held and is now trying to regain. Moreover, threats are much more common than is generally known.
Research from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) found that since 1986, when Ronald Reagan was in the White House, the federal government has prosecuted 1,444 cases involving threats against presidents or other individuals in the line of presidential succession.
These shocking figures have raised concerns about the safety of lawmakers in the US. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives plan to vote this week on a bill that would change the way the Secret Service protects presidential candidates.
President Donald Trump witnessed his second assassination on Sunday as lawmakers demanded changes to the way the Secret Service protects presidential candidates.
Ronald Reagan was seriously injured in an assassination attempt in 1982
Teddy Roosevelt was campaigning as a former president in 1912 when he was shot in the chest while campaigning in Milwaukee
Representative Michael Lawler said Axios: ‘In each of our districts, unfortunately, there are situations where there is a threat… Everyone across the political spectrum should realize the importance of ensuring the safety and well-being of elected officials and their families.’
Another representative, Ritchie Torres, agreed with the concerns, saying, “I think the president, the presidential candidates, and the members of Congress — particularly the members of Congress — have been woefully underprotected.
“The assassination of a congressman is not a matter of if, but when. We live in an age of political violence.”
According to the study, the highest number of prosecutions in a single year occurred in 1987, during the Reagan years, when there were 73.
TRAC data shows that 72 cases were filed in 2002 during the George W. Bush administration.
The Bush administration also had the highest number of cases in its eight years of existence, at 383. This was a period of heightened tension during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prosecutors filed 343 cases when Bill Clinton was president and 213 during former President Barack Obama’s two terms.
During Trump’s first term, 68 cases were filed.
Reagan was awarded 200 in the last three years of his presidency, and 213 cases were filed during George H.W. Bush’s one term.
The number of convictions was highest during the George W. Bush and Clinton years.
TRAC is a widely used database research tool developed in the 1980s by the Newhouse School and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. It was developed using government data obtained through federal open records laws and judicial processes.
Trump falls into numerous categories as a former president and a presidential candidate. There are laws regarding threats or attacks on both.
So far, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, has been charged with possession of a firearm despite a prior felony conviction and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additional charges are possible.
The attempt on Trump is unique because he is a former president trying to regain office and has now had to make two attempts. Pictured: Law enforcement personnel examine the area where the Secret Service discovered a potential assassin of former President Donald Trump at Trump International Golf Club on September 17, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
An unidentified Secret Service agent, automatic weapon drawn, shouts orders after shots are fired at President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington hotel on Monday, March 30, 1981.
Seconds after the assassination of President Ronald Reagan
Authorities continued to investigate Routh’s possible motives and movements in the days and weeks leading up to Sunday, when a Secret Service agent assigned to Trump’s security detail spotted a firearm sticking out of the brush at the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing.
The officer fired and Routh fled in an SUV, leaving behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS rifle with a scope and a plastic bag of food.
The assassination attempt on Trump is unique because it involves a former president who is trying to regain office and has already been assassinated twice.
But he is not the only former president to survive an assassination attempt while trying to regain office.
Teddy Roosevelt, a former president, was campaigning in 1912 when he was shot in the chest while campaigning in Milwaukee.
“This is not unprecedented. People often forget how violent the United States has been for a long time,” said David Head, a historian at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
There are a number of notable cases that are not included in the TRAC data.
Reagan was seriously wounded in 1982 and in 1975, two attempts were made on his life by then-President Gerald Ford within a 17-day period.
George W. Bush was in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2005 with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili when someone rolled a hand grenade into the room that failed to explode.
Clinton was in the White House on October 29, 1994, when Francisco Martin Duran, then 26, opened fire, firing about 20 shots into the building.
No one was injured, but Duran was convicted of attempted assassination of the president and sentenced to 40 years in prison.
According to the Bureau of Prisons website, he is being held in a federal prison in Virginia and will not be eligible for release until 2029.