The second assassination attempt on Donald Trump in just a few months raises questions about the ability of the Secret Service to protect the former US president and respond to his difficult campaign schedule.
According to the New York Times, the agency did not search the perimeter of the golf club in Palm Beach, Florida, before Trump started playing. Lawmakers and law enforcement officials have questioned whether the Secret Service has the resources and capacity to adequately carry out its duties amid an election season and incidents of violence increasing daily.
Cell phone data from Ryan Wesley Ruth, 58, a former contractor with a rich criminal record who wanted Trump dead, showed he remained near the stadium for 12 hours before targeting him with his rifle.
“Trump shouldn’t be there”
Speaking to reporters at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Monday afternoon (9/16), Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald L. Rowe Jr. praised his agents for locating the barrel of the gun protruding through the golf club bushes and shot Ruth before he could shoot Trump.
“The president didn’t even have to go there,” Rowe said, clarifying that it was not on Trump’s official schedule to play golf. And the deputy director of the Secret Service may have called “effective” the methods used by the agents to protect the former American president, but people within the House itself did not agree with him. “The Secret Service has protocols. If they had been implemented the suspect would have been found before the incident,” said former Special Agent Beth Celestini, who protected President Barack Obama before retiring in 2021.
According to Roe, in order for the Secret Service to deal with the ever-increasing threats, Congress should provide funding for additional personnel, overtime pay and facility enhancements.
The moment Ryan Wesley Ruth was arrested
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