The Secret Service acknowledges denying some past requests by Trump’s campaign for tighter security
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. — The Secret Service now acknowledges that it has rejected some requests from the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign for greater security at its events in the years before the attempted murder on him at a recent meeting.
Immediately after the July 13 attack, the law enforcement agency denied having denied such requests. But the Secret Service acknowledged Saturday night, a week after the attempt on Trump’s life, that it had denied some requests to increase security around the former president.
The reversal is likely to be a major focus of a Congressional hearing on Monday, where Kimberly Cheatle, Director of the Secret Service is expected to appear before lawmakers who have expressed anger over security lapses that allowed a 20-year-old gunman to climb onto the roof of a nearby building during Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and fire his weapon.
Trump suffered an injury to his right ear, one protester was killed and two others were injured.
“The Secret Service has a broad, dynamic and complex mission. Every day, we operate in a dynamic threat environment to ensure our protected personnel are safe and secure during multiple events, travel and other challenging environments,” agency chief spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement released to The Washington Post on Saturday night. The newspaper was the first to report the agency’s reversal, which it said was based on detailed questions submitted to the agency.
“We are executing a comprehensive and multi-layered strategy to balance personnel, technology and specialized operational needs,” Guglielmi said.
He said that in some cases when specialized Secret Service units are not available, the agency will rely on state and local law enforcement agencies.
“In some cases where specific specialized Secret Service units or resources were not provided, the agency has made changes to ensure the safety of the protected person,” Gugliemi said. “This may include utilizing state or local partners to provide specialized functions or otherwise identifying alternatives to reduce the public exposure of a protected person.”
After the assassination attempt, reports emerged that the agency had rejected the Trump campaign’s requests. Guglielmi denied this.
There is “a false claim that a member of the former president’s team requested additional security resources & that they were rejected,” Gugliemi said in a social media post. “This is absolutely not true. We have even added protective equipment & technology & opportunities as part of the increased campaign travel pace.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said what happened was a “failure,” while several lawmakers have called for Cheatle to resign or be fired. Cheatle so far retains the support of Democratic President Joe Biden and Mayorkas.
Biden, who is campaigning to deny Trump a second term in the White House, has ordered an independent investigation. The Department of Homeland Security and a congressional committee are also investigating.
Trump says he was given no indication that police had identified a suspicious person when the former president took the stage in Pennsylvania. Some protesters said in interviews after the attempted assassination that they saw the shooter on the roof before Trump walked on stage and that they alerted police to the scene.
In an interview with Fox News host Jesse Waters set to air Monday, Trump said, “No, nobody mentioned it, nobody said there was a problem” before he took the stage and a gunman opened fire. “They could have said, ‘Let’s wait 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 5 minutes, whatever.’ Nobody said that. I think that was a mistake.”
Trump also raised questions about security lapses and how the shooter was able to gain access to the building’s roof.
“How did somebody get on that roof? And why wasn’t he reported? Because people saw him on the roof,” Trump said. “So you would think somebody would do something about it.”
Local police had seen the man and found him suspicious enough to circulate his photo. Witnesses reported seeing him climb the building.
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Jill Colvin, an Associated Press editor in New York, contributed to this report.