WASHINGTON — President Biden said Monday that the Secret Service “needs more help” after former President Donald Trump was the target of a new assassination attempt on Sunday.
“Let me make one thing clear: The Pentagon needs more help, and I think Congress should meet their needs,” Biden, 81, said as he set off on a day trip to Philadelphia.
“I'm grateful the president is safe,” Biden added of his former rival.
The outgoing director also said the Secret Service “may determine whether it needs to increase staffing.”
The alleged shooter, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested Sunday after he was found hiding with an AK-47-style rifle in bushes near a golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Republican presidential candidate Trump was playing.
Authorities said Secret Service advance officers opened fire on Routh, who fled the scene but was later taken into custody.
Routh has used some of the same political messaging on social media as Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, writing to X in April that “democracy is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”
Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw said at a press conference on Sunday that security would be relaxed because Trump is not the sitting commander in chief.
“In his current position, he's not a sitting president. If he were, they would have this entire golf course secured around him. But he's not, so security is limited to areas the Secret Service deems feasible,” Bradshaw said.
“I think the next time he's on the golf course there will probably be a few more people around, but the Secret Service did exactly what they were supposed to do.”
The comments sparked a shock reaction in Washington, with Trump's allies in Congress calling for an immediate military surge to protect him ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
At a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, another gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, grazed Trump's ear with a bullet when he climbed onto an unsecured roof nearly 100 yards from Trump, drawing bipartisan outrage over apparent security lapses.
