OPINION:
Maybe allowing one’s campaign opponent to be in charge of your security isn’t such a great idea. As things stand, Donald Trump’s personal safety is under the control of the Biden-Harris administration, and that hasn’t been working out well lately.
The former president came within a fraction of an inch of having his life ended by an assassin’s bullet in July, only to have a second Biden-Harris donor line up to take a shot at him at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
After imposing a blackout of the facts surrounding the first shooter’s motivation, the Justice Department on Monday decided to selectively release an incendiary letter from Ryan Routh, the man charged in the second assassination attempt.
The missive purportedly written in Mr. Routh’s hand states: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
It’s not likely Mr. Routh has ever had the funds to make good on his bounty, as the court found Mr. Routh to be indigent. Even so, the suspect obtained six cellphones, a Nissan SUV, an SKS rifle, ammunition and enough cash to travel from Hawaii to Florida to carry out his plan, according to prosecution documents.
Prosecutors say Mr. Routh had a “handwritten list of dates in August, September, and October 2024 and venues where the former President had appeared or was expected to be present.” It would be important to know whether that list is accurate, given the Sept. 15 golf trip was not on any publicly available schedule.
There’s no doubt where Mr. Routh stands. There’s a Biden-Harris campaign sticker on the pickup truck in his driveway. His left-wing social media posts — before they were wiped from the internet — matched the rhetoric of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris almost to the word.
The newfound openness is certainly welcome, but it contrasts with the wall of silence surrounding the motivation of Thomas Matthew Crooks, who wounded Mr. Trump at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and was then killed by law enforcement.
Even Sen. Richard Blumenthal is fed up. “I am reaching the point of total outrage, because the response from the Department of Homeland Security has been totally lacking. In fact, I think it’s tantamount to stonewalling in many respects,” the Connecticut Democrat said.
Mr. Blumenthal believes the public will be “shocked and appalled” by the extent of the Secret Service failures — failures that have nothing to do with lack of resources at the $3 billion agency.
This brings us back to the inherent conflict of interest in having an administration desperate to imprison Mr. Trump in charge of investigating the assassination attempts against him. There will always be suspicion over whether investigative steps and the selective release of information is politically motivated.
Given that the Secret Service utterly failed in July and allowed an armed person to stake out a former president for over 12 hours last week, the agency has proved itself not to be up to the task.
Until the agency is reformed from the ground up, Mr. Trump ought to consider supplementing his official protection detail with reliable contractors, paid for by the feds, that won’t base their decisions on partisan considerations.
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