Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho) on Monday suggested former President Trump consider hiring private security following what appears to be the second assassination attempt in the past few months.
“If I were President Trump and my goal was to survive, I would look at a variety of options, including private security, to meet some of these needs,” Fulcher said in an interview with NewsNation's “The Hill.”
“But the intelligence community has not been forthright in its communications with Congress,” he continued.
Fulcher praised Secret Service agents for preventing further tragedy at the golf course on Sunday, but said the intelligence agency had suffered a blow to Congress' credibility.
“First of all, who would have thought that the biggest determining factor in this election would be keeping Donald Trump alive? Normally in an election cycle you worry about policies and voter turnout and those kinds of things, but right now it's just about keeping Donald Trump alive.”
“Thankfully, there were Secret Service agents who did their job and apparently saved the president's life,” he continued. “That's a wonderful thing, but I have to say overall, the intelligence community has lost a great deal of credibility in Congress and is growing increasingly distrusted.”
Fulcher's interview came the day after Trump was the target of a second assassination attempt on and around his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Secret Service agents stationed at several nearby holes noticed a man with a rifle pointing around the course, the rifle protruding from a patch of brush about 300 to 500 yards away.
Secret Service agents fired at the man, who then dropped an AK-47 rifle and fled in a vehicle. Authorities later arrested the suspect, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58.
The suspect was arrested before he could do any harm — a big improvement over the July assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, that drew scrutiny for the Secret Service's failure to protect the president from a bullet that grazed his ear. But the effort raises new concerns about the level of security surrounding the former president.
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