Members of Congress are demanding enhanced security for Republican nominee Donald Trump in the wake of a second assassination attempt on Sunday.
"Given the escalating threats, I’m calling on President Biden to issue President Trump the same security levels afforded to a sitting President to ensure his safety," Rep. Nick Langworthy (R., N.Y.) said following Sunday’s assassination attempt on Trump at his West Palm Beach golf club.
The incident comes just two months after Trump narrowly survived an attempted assassination on July 13 at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, which sparked widespread scrutiny toward the Secret Service.
A bipartisan congressional task force, created in response to the July attempt, has "requested a briefing with the U.S. Secret Service about what happened and how security responded" on Sunday. Members of the task force said they "remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms."
Palm Beach County sheriff Ric Bradshaw on Sunday said Trump did not have the same level of protection as President Joe Biden, despite acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe assuring the task force that Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris would both be granted the same security measures as the president.
"At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president," Bradshaw said. "If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded. But because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible."
"All major presidential candidates ought to receive the highest level of presidential [protection]," Rep. Ritchie Torres (D., N.Y.) told Axios. "Anything less than maximum protection is a self-inflicted wound that puts our Nation's stability at grave risk."
"After two unsuccessful assassination attempts against Trump, the USSS should stop treating him as a candidate," said former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. "They need to treat him as they would a sitting POTUS, especially by expanding the protective perimeter around him. Stop being bureaucratic. Do what’s necessary."
Other members of Congress condemned the inadequate security provided to Trump, with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R., N.Y.) saying in a post on X that the Republican nominee "should have same security level as the sitting president!"