Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that Senate Democrats are prepared to provide more money for the Secret Service after former President Trump was the target of an apparent second assassination attempt over the weekend.
Schumer said he spoke to Ronald Rowe Jr., the acting director of the Secret Service, on Sunday after a suspect was apprehended for stalking Trump on his Florida golf course.
“I’m glad the former president is safe and I applaud the Secret Service and all first responders for acting quickly before anyone got hurt,” Schumer said.
Law enforcement officials said the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, left behind a semiautomatic rifle and a scope after Secret Service agents fired at him while Trump played at his West Palm Beach golf club.
“There’s no place in America for political violence of any kind,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “We all must do our part to ensure an incident like this does not happen again. That means that Congress has a responsibility to ensure the Secret Service and all law enforcement have the resources they need to do their jobs.
“So as we continue the appropriations process, if the Secret Service is in need of more resources, we are prepared in providing for them, possibly in the upcoming funding agreement,” he said.
Congress needs to pass a short-term funding measure by Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown, and lawmakers are looking at adding more money for the Secret Service to increase security around Trump and Vice President Harris, the Democratic nominee.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters Sunday that the Secret Service agents “did exactly what they should have done” but added that Trump did not have as much security as a sitting president would have.
President Biden said Sunday that he has directed his administration to provide “every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure” Trump’s “continued safety.”
Schumer on Monday called for the suspect detained by law enforcement in Florida to be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Trump was also the target of an assassination attempt on July 13, when a gunman opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pa.