(NewsNation) — Following the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in two months, pressure is mounting for changes in how the U.S. Secret Service operates and the level of security that it provides to those it is charged to protect.
President Joe Biden told reporters Monday that the Secret Service “needs more help” and called on Congress to respond to the agency’s needs if, “in fact, they need more servicemen,” Biden said.
Biden’s and other lawmakers’ calls for more protection for the former president came a day after the Secret Service spotted Ryan Wesley Routh outside of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday.
Secret Service agents noticed the muzzle of an AK-47-style weapon along the property’s perimeter and fired at the suspect, according to authorities.
Routh now faces weapons charges in connection with the incident, which the FBI determined to be an assassination attempt.
Sheriff questions if Trump’s would-be assassin acted alone
Changes to the level of security provided to Trump and others are already in the works after members of the Congressional task force assigned to investigate the first attempt on Trump’s life on July 13 were briefed late last week by acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, according to U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey, a member of the task force.
Ivey, a Democrat from Maryland, told NewsNation on Sunday the level of protection provided to Trump changed since Trump was shot in the ear at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in July.
“We have to figure out how to get more bodies that are trained and able and capable of doing this kind of work in a way that the United States can rely on and meets the high standard of what we expect from the Secret Service,” Ivey told NewsNation.
How the Secret Service protects ex-presidents
The U.S. Secret Service has provided lifetime protection for former presidents since Congress authorized the agency to do so in 1965 through the enactment of the Former Presidents Act. It requires security for former presidents as well as their spouses and children up to the age of 16, according to the agency.
However, what that level of protection looks like varies, according to former Secret Service agent Tim Miller, who told the Canadian Broadcast Company those levels of protection are based on what the agency feels is appropriate.
Miller told the network that the Secret Service has the responsibility to protect a former president at all times wherever they go, Miller said.
Secret Service scrutinized over apparent Trump assassination attempt
The Secret Service budgeted more than $2 billion annually to protect the president and the first family in 2017, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The Secret Service’s annual budget was about $3 billion in the most recent fiscal year, according to the Office of Management and Data, and about $1.2 billion of that was allocated to the division that oversees protection for the president, vice president and their families.
While Biden and others call for Trump to receive more Secret Service protection, Ivey said Sunday that what the enhanced security details look like will take shape in time. The task force’s report on the July 13 rally shooting of Trump is due in December.
“I think at the end of this, what we’re going to have to figure out — we being Congress — is how to get more resources to the Secret Service so that they can get more personnel, so they can cover more of these events, especially during a presidential cycle,” Ivey told NewsNation on Sunday.”
What Donald Trump’s future security detail could look like
The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny since the assassination attempt on Trump in July that led to former director Kimberly Cheatle to resign after she admitted that the agency failed to protect Trump during the rally shooting.
One spectator was killed, and two others were injured in the shooting, which came after Trump campaign officials said they had requested more security detail for Trump and were denied.
Since the rally, Trump has been surrounded by bulletproof glass while speaking, and large dump trucks have formed a wall outside of Trump Tower in New York when Trump is there, The Associated Press reported.
Trump Florida assassination attempt suspect: What we know
An email sent to a Secret Service spokesperson Monday seeking comment from NewsNation about what future security detail for Trump could include moving forward was not immediately returned.
Jennifer Coffindaffer, a former FBI agent, told NewsNation Monday that additional security for Trump moving forward would not have to be limited to just the Secret Service. Often, federal agencies like the FBI, along with state and local law enforcement agencies, work in collaboration with the Secret Service to protect a former president and other public officials.
Coffindaffer said a threat assessment is done before each security detail is assigned to a public figure before a public appearance. Due to the two attempts on Trump’s life, future events at which the former president is scheduled to attend should receive the highest designation threat level possible, Coffindaffer told NewsNation.
How many additional agents or officers would vary daily based on Trump’s schedule of events, Coffidaffer said. The Secret Service’s advance team and the person in charge of the security detail prepare the operational plan, she added, and that those privy to Trump’s schedule, including the former president’s golf outings, must be limited to only a select few, Coffindaffer said.
Rowe told reporters on Monday that Trump’s golf outing on Sunday was considered an “off-the-record” movement, which means it was not on his personal schedule. Rowe said that the Secret Service had its highest level of security assigned to Trump, but declined to say how many agents were assigned to that detail.
Rowe said Monday that the agency is currently evaluating the former president’s level of security and will “ratchet it up” if needed.
With Sunday’s threat at the Florida golf club, Ivey says that the task force’s job of looking into the Secret Service’s shortcomings became even more important. On Monday, a spokesperson for the task force said that the group is working with congressional leadership to determine if the jurisdiction of the task force is going to expand to include Sunday’s assassination attempt.
“We all understand that there were dramatic failures that were made (on July 13) that could have had tragic consequences for former President Trump that did have tragic consequences for one of the spectators there and also led to serious injuries to two others,” Ivey told NewsNation on Sunday. “We know we can’t have another day like that. The United States has to meet a higher standard. The Secret Service has to meet a higher standard. Our democracy demands that, and this task force is going to demand that we get that.”
