OAN Staff James Meyers
9:24 AM – Friday, September 20, 2024
The House unanimously passed a bill on Friday that will increase Secret Service protection for the two parties’ presidential nominees and their vice presidential running mates.
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The vote came in at 405-0, just five days after the second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump when Ryan Wesley Routh purportedly camped outside Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club for nearly 12 hours.
A security team conducting a screening of the holes Trump was approaching spotted Routh and fired shots at him, who fled the scene and was later arrested by local authorities.
This was the second attempt on Trump’s life within 60 days. In July, a gunman opened fire at the former president’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, piercing Trump’s ear and leaving him bloodied on stage.
“President Biden made it clear that he wanted the highest levels of protection for former President Trump and for Vice President Harris. Secret Service moved to sustain increases in assets and the level of protection … and those things were in place yesterday,” acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told reporters Monday.
“The President is aware that he has the highest levels of protection that Secret Service is providing him. …There’s a lot of tactical assets in place, things that have been put in place as a result of what happened 60 days ago. Those elements are working,” he added.
The bill will now be sent to the Senate for consideration, but it’s unclear how the upper chamber will handle the issue of security. Meanwhile, lawmakers from both chambers are discussing whether to include additional funding for the Secret Service in the stopgap funding bill Congress must pass by September 30th to avoid a government shutdown.
Additionally, Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) rolled out a companion bill to the one passed by the House on Friday.
“Over the course of just 65 days, two deranged individuals have tried to kill President Donald Trump, and one was able to shoot him in the head,” Scott said in a statement. “It is unthinkable that this could happen in America today, and it demands the immediate action of Congress.”
Currently, Trump has the same counter surveillance and counter sniper teams given to sitting presidents, along with protective intelligence and drone teams.
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