On Monday, President Joe Biden called on Congress to allocate additional resources to the Secret Service to ensure the protection of former President Donald Trump, who has faced two attempted assassinations in just over two months.
In her statement on the same day, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is a political rival of Trump, did not address the need for increased resources for the Secret Service.
“One thing I want to make clear is: The Service needs more help. And I think Congress should respond to their need,” Biden told reporters outside the White House.
The agency must “decide whether they need more personnel or not,” the president added.
House Speaker Mike Johnson also supports increasing security for Trump, though his track record on delivering on promises is inconsistent.
On Sunday, authorities arrested 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh for allegedly attempting to assassinate Trump while the former president was golfing in South Florida.
Routh, who seems to support a neoconservative agenda and frequently posts about the Ukraine-Russia conflict, had attempted to recruit volunteers to fight Russia. The New York Times interviewed him about his recruitment efforts for Ukraine.
Initially a Trump supporter in 2016, Routh turned against him by 2020. Earlier this year, he posted “Make Americans slaves again” and reportedly placed a Harris-Biden bumper sticker on a truck outside his Hawaii home, while also donating to Democratic causes.
Excerpts from a book on the Ukraine war suggest Routh encouraged Iran to kill Trump and claimed Trump was responsible for the January 6 events—a view that aligns with certain Democratic narratives in the media.
Wow. Attempted Trump Assassin Ryan Routh wrote a book on the Ukraine war. In the book he tells Iran to assassinate Trump while praising John Kerry for the Iran Deal. He also calls Trump an idiot and says he "perpetrated" Jan. 6th.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 16, 2024
He sounds like a mainstream media addict. pic.twitter.com/OY0iBVEHek
Politicians from both the right and the left condemned the attempted assassination. However, establishment media quickly attributed the blame to Trump, rather than to Democrats, for allegedly using inflammatory rhetoric that they claimed incited political violence.
