The repeated attempts on former President Donald Trump’s life have deepened conservatives’ distrust of the government and the criminal justice system, including suspicions that Democrats and high-ranking officials are rooting for attempted assassins.
White House officials aren’t backing off their rhetoric. A day after the assassination attempt Sunday, they framed Mr. Trump as “dangerous” and a “threat” to Democracy. At the same time, Republicans are intensifying scrutiny of the Secret Service and whether it is purposefully leaving the former president vulnerable.
Rep. Elijah Crane, Arizona Republican, said Mr. Trump should increase his use of private bodyguards rather than rely on government agents to protect him.
“The United States Secret Service is not making wise security decisions, and President Trump should bolster his private security to fill these gaps,” Mr. Crane posted on X.
In an online interview with “The Benny Show,” Mr. Crane suggested that the Secret Service had an anti-Trump mole on his protective team or higher up in the agency. He said Mr. Trump needed private security to fill the Secret Service gaps and “to watch the watchers.”
Most lawmakers blame the two assassination attempts on plain incompetence, but a public poll shows Democrats may be hoping the third try is successful.
SEE ALSO: ‘God has now spared my life not once, but twice,’ Trump tells supporters
A Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted online by RMG Research over the two days after the second assassination attempt found 28% of Democrats said, “America would be better off if Donald Trump had been killed last weekend.”
About 7% of Republicans said the same thing.
Among Democrats, 25% said they were unsure whether America would be better off without Mr. Trump, and 47% said America would not be better off.
The same poll showed that 49% of Democrats said it is somewhat likely Mr. Trump or his campaign was involved in the assassination attempt, while 52% of Republicans said it was somewhat likely Democrats or the Harris campaign was involved, including 28% who said it was very likely.
“It is hard to imagine a greater threat to democracy than expressing a desire to have your political opponent murdered,” said Scott Rasmussen, RMG Research president.
Republicans say the Secret Service is blocking them from finding out more about Mr. Trump’s government protection after the July 13 shooting in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
SEE ALSO: Secret Service tells House task force that Trump already has presidential-level protection
On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced legislation authored by Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, that would require the Secret Service to turn over all information related to the Butler assassination attempt on Mr. Trump.
The agency has failed to determine a motive for the gunman, who was killed immediately by a Secret Service sniper, and questions remain about how he was able to position himself on a rooftop with a rifle just a few hundred yards away from the former president. The would-be assassin in Butler fired several shots, one of which grazed the president in the ear. One rally attendee was killed, and two others were seriously wounded.
The shooter was able to fire off shots even though he was identified as a person of interest more than an hour before Mr. Trump took the stage in Butler, was spotted with a range finder and was able to fly a drone near the rally site earlier in the afternoon.
Republicans view the assassination attempt Sunday in Florida as an indictment of the Secret Service and the FBI, which are supposed to protect the former president.
The man accused of attempting to assassinate the former president, Ryan Routh, was able to hide undetected for 12 hours in the bushes along the sixth hole of the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach with a scoped AK-47 rifle. Authorities suspect he was waiting for the former president to approach with his golfing party.
“Yesterday’s would-be Trump assassin was on the golf course for 12 hours before Secret Service ID’d him. The Butler shooter was on site long before he took his first shot,” Mr. Hawley posted on social media. “This is a dangerous pattern. Secret Service needs to tell us what’s going on. And what they’re doing to stop it.”
On Monday, Mr. Hawley released the full details of a whistleblower report with findings described as “highly damaging to the credibility of the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security,” including a pattern of negligence, sloppiness and “gross incompetence,” dating back years and culminating in the Butler rally shooting that nearly killed Mr. Trump.
Among the newly revealed claims is one from whistleblowers who say the Secret Service failed to deploy one of its intelligence units, which pair with state and local law enforcement to investigate suspicious people, to the Butler rally. The report also disclosed that the hospital that treated Mr. Trump after the shooting was not adequately secured and, according to the whistleblower, that the lead Secret Service agent responsible for securing the rally site was “known to be incompetent.”
A Secret Service report about the Butler shooting was expected this week, but the second assassination attempt may delay it. Secret Service officials planned a virtual briefing Wednesday with members of a House task force investigating both assassination attempts.
Senators met with Secret Service officials this month for a briefing on the incident. Few details were made public, spurring more suspicion about the lack of transparency.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat overseeing the investigation of the Secret Service, said Americans would be “shocked, astonished and appalled” by the agency’s failures leading up to the assassination attempt. He said the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Secret Service, is stonewalling Congress.
Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, said the Democratic-led investigative panel should issue subpoenas to obtain the information. The Secret Service and FBI, he said, are slow to provide witnesses to Congress and cannot be trusted.
“There are far more questions outstanding than answers being provided regarding the July 13th assassination attempt against President Trump,” Mr. Johnson posted on X.
The second assassination attempt did little to tame attacks from Democrats, who continue to portray Mr. Trump as a threat to the country.
Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who lost to Mr. Trump in 2016, said in an MSNBC interview Monday that the former president was a “very dangerous man” who would “do harm to the country and the world” if he won another term.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre brushed off blame that the vitriol is spurring the attempts on Mr. Trump’s life. She called such an assertion “dangerous” and said President Biden “has been clear-eyed about the threat that the former president represents to our democracy.”
She pointed to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol involving thousands of Trump supporters who marched there after Mr. Trump disputed the presidential election results that declared Mr. Biden as the winner.
“He refused to accept the outcomes of free and fair elections,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said.
This week, Mr. Trump credited the Secret Service with ramping up his protection. Meanwhile, Congress is weighing additional funding for the agency, which says it is operating with a staffing shortage.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe on Monday praised the agents for preventing an assassination. They spotted Mr. Routh in the bushes and fired at him before he could get Mr. Trump in his line of sight.
“The protective methodologies of the Secret Service were effective yesterday,” Mr. Rowe said.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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