After all, that administration is the same administration that effectively has weaponized the Department of Justice to attack Trump, for his comments about the 2020 election, for his handling of government documents, even for his business operations, as a related state agenda demanded.

Further, he’s been targeted by at least two assassination attempts in just the past few weeks, including one that left him wounded. And there have been multiple concerns and complaints that the Secret Service repeatedly denied him the level of protection his own campaign staff said was needed.

Now the situation has gotten worse.

A Fox News report explains that Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has documented reports from a whistleblower that Secret Service leaders are trying “to hide the level of protection given to former President Donald Trump.”

The chief of the agency already has quit in the wake of agents’ failures to protect Trump in that assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, a few weeks ago.

Hawley sent letters to the Secret Service chief Ronald Rowe and the Department of Homeland Security inspector general Joseph Cuffan, revealing that at this point government auditors are being denied access to some Trump campaign events in an effort “to hide these apparent protection shortfalls for the former president,” the report said.

“You of course have publicly stated that former President Trump is receiving ‘the highest level of Secret Service protection’ and that ‘he’s getting everything.’ This new whistleblower information troublingly contradicts your public statements,” Hawley told the bureaucrats.

Hawley charged, to Cuffan, that, “Secret Service headquarters blocked several of your auditors from accessing recent Trump campaign events.”

Hawley continued, “The Secret Service whistleblower alleges that the denial was in order to hide the fact that the former president is not receiving a consistent level of protective assets for all of his engagements. [Y]ou should be aware of these allegations, which indicate that the Secret Service is not in fact cooperating with your auditors and is instead painting a false picture.”

Hawley has been hearing from whistleblowers since that July 13 attempt on Trump’s life, when he was nicked in the ear by a bullet that likely would have killed him had he not turned his head to look at a poster display at just that second.

He’s given credit to God for saving his life.

Hawley already has released a lengthy report detailing a list of allegations against Washington’s bureaucracy.

“Hawley found a ‘compounding pattern of negligence, sloppiness, and gross incompetence that goes back years, all of which culminated in an assassination attempt that came inches from succeeding,'” Fox reported.

Trump, besides crediting a higher power for sparing his life, has commented on suspicions that outside enemies, including Iranian interests, are trying to take him out.

The Washington Examiner notes that Trump has charged that Biden should threaten to bomb Iran if those linked to the rogue Islamic empire try to assassinate him.

“Iran has an open threat out for me, and that’s bad. And Biden, if he were a real president, if he were the kind of guy he should be, he should say, ‘If anybody shoots a former president, who’s now the leading candidate, even though he’s leading against Democrats, we will bomb that country into oblivion.’ And it would stop.”

The report noted, “Iran has openly touted plans to assassinate Trump since his administration’s assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps leader Qassem Soleimani in January 2020.”

The two assassination attempts of Trump in July and September were not linked with the Iranian government.

Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!

This article was originally published by the WND News Center.

Trump is slated to speak to voters in Butler, Pennsylvania at 5 p.m. this evening, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and family members of Corey Comperatore — the fireman who was killed in the July shooting — also expected to attend. The speaking engagement has sparked concern over the former president’s safety; notably, a dozen current and former Secret Service agents told NBC News that the USSS has reached “a breaking point” amid staffing shortages and an increased workload.

“The increasing demand placed on the agency during this dynamic threat environment has resulted in our people being pushed to the limit,” Anthony Guglielmi, The USSS’ chief spokesman, said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation Saturday. “We recognize that this is not sustainable, and we cannot risk another mission failure.”

The USSS has struggled with staffing issues as attrition outpaced new hiring, with a net loss of 59 Special Agents and 60 Special Agents in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, respectively, according to employment data the USSS shared with the DCNF. However, the agency has seen a significant increase in hiring in fiscal year 2024, adding 186 Special Agents and 1,099 total employees — nearly double the total hired in the fiscal year prior.

Despite the recent increase in hiring, Trump’s return to Butler coincides with the USSS “redlining,” meaning agents are having to work excessive hours, according to two U.S. officials who spoke with NBC.

“The US Secret Service is killing their people, and worse they are supposed to have a zero-fail protective mission on zero rest/sleep,” a former agent reportedly told the outlet. “I love my agency but they are setting themselves up for another incident.”

The strain on Secret Service resources also comes despite the agency’s budget skyrocketing, with the USSS slated to receive an additional $231 million from Speaker Mike Johnson’s government funding bill. The agency’s budget has increased by nearly $1 billion since 2014, though only $200 million of that has gone to protective operations.

“I hate to say it, they are going to hit rock bottom fast,” a former Secret Service agent reportedly told NBC.

Featured Image: Screen Capture/CSPAN

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].

Original Story: In a press conference held on Monday, the FBI provided critical information regarding the suspect in the recent assassination attempt on 2024 GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. The individual, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, had previously been the subject of a tip to the FBI, which alleged that he was a felon in possession of a firearm.

“By way of his background, in 2002, as the United States Attorney mentioned, the suspect was charged and convicted in North Carolina for possession of mass destruction,” stated Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office. This alarming history raises serious questions about how such individuals are able to evade scrutiny.

FBI official on Trump shooter Ryan Wesley Routh: "Law Enforcement checks revealed that from 1997 to 2010, the subject had numerous felony charges for stolen goods." pic.twitter.com/LejmfCxLAu

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 16, 2024

Further complicating matters, Veltri revealed, “I can also share with you that he was the subject of a previously closed 2019 tip to the FBI, where it was alleged he was a felon in possession of a firearm. In following up on the tip, the alleged complainant was interviewed and did not verify, I repeat, did not verify providing the initial information. The FBI passed that information to local law enforcement in Honolulu.”

This raises concerns about the effectiveness of the FBI’s follow-up procedures and the reliability of the information received.

On Monday, Routh was formally charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison for the first charge and a potential five-year sentence for the second.

The Secret Service opened fire on Routh as Trump was playing golf in Florida. The suspect was spotted hiding in the bushes with the muzzle of his firearm sticking out through the fence. He fled the scene but was later apprehended on I-95. Authorities reported that an “AK-47 style rifle with a scope, two backpacks which were hung on the fence that had ceramic tile in them, and a GoPro” were discovered in the bushes at the golf course.

This troubling series of events underscores the ongoing threats faced by Trump. It’s for him to hire stout private security to take charge of his safety.

“I f—ing told them that they needed to post guys f—ing over here…I told them that f—ing Tuesday,” said a Butler Township officer in audio captured by his body-worn camera and obtained by the Wall Street Journal.

“I talked to the Secret Service guys. They’re like, ‘Yeah, no problem. We’re going to post guys over here,’” the officer continues.

The footage paints a more complete picture of the anger and frustration moments after Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to fire eight shots at the former president from an AR-style assault rifle. A spectator was killed, two others were injured, and Trump suffered a bullet wound to the ear. The Journal obtained the videos under a public-records request Thursday.

A police officer in one of the videos at one point refers to a suspicious individual who had been lost by authorities. The unidentified officer referred to “a gentleman with a flat face that we were looking for earlier. He was creeping people out.”

The officer’s account, which was broadcast over radio channels, was captured by one of the body cameras. “He was watching people out in the woods by the water tower. I’m not sure he is the gentleman down or not,” the officer says.

Around 10 minutes after the shooting, another officer says to a fellow officer “I thought you guys were on the roof. I thought it was you. I thought it was you.”

To which “No” can be heard in response.

“What the fuck! Why were we not on the roof? Why weren’t we?” the officer replies.

NEW: Butler PA officers at Trump rally after the shooting, discussing that they had warned USSS about vulnerabilities far in advance.

“I f**ing told them to post guys over here. I told the Secret Service Tuesday!” pic.twitter.com/A367aXZKRR

— Still Boneless (@still_boneless) August 8, 2024

As the Epoch Times notes further, the footage also shows the moment an officer with the Butler Township Police Department tried to get on the roof of a building where suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was perched. Another officer helped lift the responding officer to the roof after rally attendees alerted police that there was an individual on the roof near the rally where Trump was set to speak.

BREAKING: Bodycam video just released shows a police officer being lifted up to the roof of the AGR building, interrupting Thomas Crooks just seconds before he started shooting to assassinate President Trump at the Butler rally. pic.twitter.com/NVU0yR515w

— Dapper Detective (@Dapper_Det) August 8, 2024

In the clip, an officer is seen moving toward a building before another officer tries to hoist him onto the roof. The officer is then seen trying to climb onto the building before he drops down.

Only officers’ hands are seen as he tries to get onto the roof in the video, which does not show Crooks.

Butler Township Police Department Lt. Matthew Pearson last month told a local Pennsylvania news outlet that the officer was not able to draw his firearm because he was holding onto the building. And Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told the New York Post last month that the officers who interrupted Crooks may have distracted the shooter before he shot at the former president, hitting him in the ear.

“If I’m interrupted, and I move my gun, you are going to have to reassess that whole situation at this point, so yes, you can make a case that those two officers saved the president’s life,” Slupe told the paper.

He then asked, “Can you imagine 10 seconds before that? That the president was looking straight ahead and where that bullet could have potentially landed.”

More than three weeks after the assassination attempt, federal officials have not disclosed the Crooks’s motive. So far, few details have emerged about the suspect, and his family has not issued a public statement responding to the incident.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Butler Township Police Department for comment.

Previous Footage Released

Separate bodycam footage from a responding official was released in connection to the July 13 shooting, which killed a rally attendee and injured two others. In late July, Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-Iowa) office released rooftop bodycam footage of an officer who responded to the shooting—after Crooks was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

It shows an officer with the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit standing next to a dark-suited man, who appears to be a Secret Service agent, according to a press release from Grassley’s office.

In the clip, at least three other law enforcement officials can be seen, although it is not clear exactly how many were present on the roof when the footage was filmed.

On the ground next to them appears to be the body of Crooks. Although the shooter’s body has been partially blurred in the video, a long trail of blood on the roof can be seen.

The Beaver County officer and the purported Secret Service agent can be heard discussing the timeline of events they believe led up to the assassination attempt, including whether the man lying on the ground next to them is the same man seen in a photo sent out by a member of Beaver County’s sniper team.

“So, this is the guy … that the sniper saw,” the agent says.

“Yes, a Beaver County sniper seen [sic] and sent the pictures out, this is him,” the officer replies.

The Secret Service agent then asks whether or not an abandoned bike that was found in the area belonged to the shooter.

“We don’t know,” the officer responds.

The Beaver County officer then shows the agent photos on his phone.

“I don’t know if you got the same ones I did?” the officer asks the agent, referring to the photos.

“I think I did, yeah, he’s [the shooter] got his glasses on,” the agent replies.

Two days later, Grassley released additional bodycam footage “filmed in the hour following the attempted assassination,” also obtained from the Beaver County emergency department.

That footage shows law enforcement talking about a need to use a drone to secure and inspect a water tower that was onsite, according to his office.

Katabella Reporters contributed to this report.

Between the failed assassination attempt against Trump and the subsequent resignation of the Secret Service’s diversity hire director, Kimberly Cheatle, the stage was set for what should only be viewed as election interference.

Sundance at The Last Refuge agreed:

According to multiple reports, the Secret Service told President Trump to stop holding outdoor MAGA rallies.

That part doesn’t come as a surprise, not because of any security risk, but because in the manufactured optics of the 2024 election Team Chicago cannot maintain the illusion of massive Kamala support. The contrast is against their interests.

Unfortunately it appears the Trump campaign has agreed to accept the restriction.

Former President Donald Trump plans to stop holding outdoor rallies like the one where he was shot in the ear by a sniper earlier this month in Pennsylvania, according to two sources familiar with his campaign’s operations.

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 24, 2024

Nobody could blame Trump or members of his family for taking his security seriously. Indoor venues are generally easier to defend because of the limited space to cover. But this move greatly limits the venues and cities where Trump can hold rallies. With crowds in the tens of thousands, his team will have to secure locations well ahead of time which hampers them strategically.

Mark this as a win for the Deep State.

Generally we do not publish rumors except there doesn’t seem to be a path forward for Cheatle or the White House following the nearly successful assassination attempt against Donald Trump just over a week ago. They had one job and failed miserably at it with only a miraculous move at the last moment keeping Trump alive.

The more we learn about the incident, the worse the Secret Service looks. They initially denied claims that they withheld security resources from the Trump campaign, then backtracked and admitted it this weekend. It was also revealed this weekend that the would-be assassin was able to fly a drone over the event location just hours before Trump was on stage. Senator Josh Hawley revealed that most of the detail protecting Trump weren’t even part of the Secret Service.

For these and other reasons, the rumors that she’ll be resigning appear to be logical whether they’re credible or not. Students for Trump founder Ryan Fournier posted about it on 𝕏, sourcing from “friends” in the Secret Service:

BREAKING: Kimberly Cheatle to resign as soon as Monday.

— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) July 20, 2024

Podcaster Brandon Tatum reiterated the rumor:

BREAKING: The failed, DEI Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle will resign by Monday.

Great! Only 8 days too late.

It’s been reported that the Secret Service was intentionally shorting President Trump’s Secret Service detail. Congress MUST create a J13 committee NOW! pic.twitter.com/V7xHZ9xWKg

— Brandon Tatum (@TheOfficerTatum) July 20, 2024

Cheatle is scheduled to testify before Congress about her failures. This comes as Democrat Rep. Brendan Boyle has joined the chorus of calling for her to resign.

As recently as Friday, Cheatle has claimed she will not be resigning, but it seems unlikely the White House can justify her continued service in an election year, especially with all of the questionable information that’s coming out about the attempted assassination.

We will keep a close eye on developments but as of now this is only a rumor.

𝕏 user Shadow of Ezra noted that the rumor may or may not be true, but it definitely SHOULD be:

The rumor about Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigning on Monday is just a rumor for now.

What is not a rumor is how she colluded with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to have Donald Trump assassinated last Saturday, with the cooperation of FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle denied extra security for Trump.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas replaced Secret Service agents with untrained and incompetent personnel to make Trump an easier target.

FBI Director Christopher Wray is handling the cover-up and clean-up operations.

The CIA outsourced assassins for the job.

BlackRock provided the money in collusion with the Khazarian Mafia.

Donald Trump is still standing.

Arrests must be made.

We will update this story as more information comes available.

(DCNF)—Secret Service officials repeatedly denied requests for additional resources made by former President Donald Trump’s detail prior to the July 13 assassination attempt, the Washington Post reported.

Trump was slightly wounded in the right ear on July 13 when a gunman fired multiple shots during the attempted assassination at the Butler County, Pennsylvania, rally, killing former volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore and wounding two other attendees. The Post reported that for at least two years prior to the deadly incident, Trump’s detail was denied resources, including counter-sniper teams for a 2023 appearance in Pickens, South Carolina, where a number of buildings surrounded Trump’s stage.

Once again Mayorkas has MISLED the public.

On CNN he called my statement that President Trump’s detail was DENIED repeated requests for stronger secret service protection “an irresponsible statement that is unequivocally false”.

Now WaPo is citing officials that I was CORRECT,… https://t.co/jPWYzLntWb

— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) July 20, 2024

“It’s just true — we don’t have the resources to secure him [Trump] like we did when he was president,” one official told the Washington Post, which reported that events involving President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were competing for resources last week. Agents were also involved in advance work for the Republican National Convention, according to the Post.

One former Secret Service agent placed the blame on top leaders for the resource shortage.

“I hate to dumb it down this much but it is a simple case of supply and demand. The requests get turned down routinely,” retired Secret Service agent Bill Gage told the Post. “A director has to finally come forward to say we are way understaffed and we cannot possibly continue with this zero fail mission without a significantly bigger budget.”

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray Thursday, saying that whistleblowers have informed his committee that Trump’s detail was short-handed due to the NATO summit in Washington, D.C. and Jill Biden’s campaign event in Pittsburgh. Wray is slated to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

Since the July 13 assassination attempt, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received Secret Service protection after it was previously denied.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has faced multiple calls for her resignation and is expected to testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing investigating security lapses at the July 13 rally Monday.

Trump survived an assassination attempt during his 2016 campaign for the White House during a campaign event in Las Vegas, when a 20-year-old man tried to take a police officer’s gun to shoot the then-presumptive GOP nominee during a June 2016 campaign event in Las Vegas.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].

According to Crabtree, the potential lack of drones and the “DEI” protocols at the Secret Service contributed to the failure, but the biggest reason Trump’s life was put in danger is because rules of engagement prohibit snipers from engaging until the assassin shoots first.

Here’s the full report from Crabtree:

Here’s my reporting on why the Secret Service did not shoot until AFTER the shooter engaged and some context about the House Republicans’ investigation already underway (months before Trump’s assassination attempt) into whether the agency’s DEI policies are affecting its readiness.

The blowback against the Secret Service started within the hour of the assassination attempt and continued even after Trump and other credited the agency with saving Trump’s life by quickly killing a shooter crawling across a nearby rooftop.

But a source within the Secret Service community tells RealClearPolitics that the agency rules of engagement in this situation are to wait until the president is fired upon to return fire.

“You want to take a shot then find out the guy was holding a telescope?” the source suggested. “The Secret Service is by nature reactive…and you better be right when you do react or you’re f—–d.”

The Secret Service protocol requires that a counter sniper aware of a potential shooter to radio directly to intelligence division team to respond and investigate. In this case, the investigation may have been cut short by the shooter firing his weapon, so the counter sniper then fired as quickly as possible in return.

The source praised the counter sniper who acquired the target and responded within three seconds, calling their performance “incredible.”

“The counter snipers are highly trained and extremely accurate,” he said.

Others with law enforcement and military backgrounds want to know whether the Secret Service utilized drones, i.e. small unmanned aircraft systems, to provide detailed situational awareness. If the agency did not use drones, why not, these experts ask. The use of drones has been a controversial issue within the agency since at least 2016. Implementing drones would have provided detailed line-of-site analysis and aerial surveillance that would have easily identified the rooftop as a potential threat area.

“The USSS has access to all the best imagery and elevation data,” the military expert told RCP. “I’m not saying they didn’t [use drones], but it’s an open question.”

The once vaunted Secret Service lost some of its former respect after a string of fence-jumping incidents and other security lapses came to light during the Obama administration. At the beginning of the Trump administration, a senior special agent in the Secret Service came under fire for suggesting in a Facebook post that she wouldn’t “take a bullet” for Trump. Kerry O’Grady, the former agent in question, was placed on administrative leave but was allowed to retire with full benefits, which outraged many in the Secret Service community.

The agency, more recently, has come under scrutiny for its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, after a female agency attached to Vice President Kamala Harris’s protective detail and identified as Michelle Herczeg, had an apparent mental breakdown and physically attacked her senior officers at Joint Base Andrews before a trip. An agency spokesman called the issue a “medical incident,” but other members of the Secret Service launched a petition over the agency’s diversity, equity and inclusion hiring and vetting policies during the Biden administration, as first reported by RCP.

In addition, after the attempted assassination of Trump Saturday night, conservatives blasted Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, for earlier this year introducing a bill co-sponsored by several other Democrats that would have denied Service Service protection to Trump if he were convicted of a felony. The measure never gained traction in the GOP-controlled House.

After the attempted assassination, which killed one innocent spectator and injured at least two others, Thompson tweeted that he is “glad that the former president is safe” and is “gratefully for law enforcement’s fast response.”

Here’s my reporting on why the Secret Service did not shoot until AFTER the shooter engaged and some context about the House Republicans’ investigation already underway (months before Trump’s assassination attempt) into whether the agency’s DEI policies are affecting its…

— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) July 14, 2024

The Disgraced Former Protectees Act was introduced by Democratic Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson of the House Committee of Homeland Security in April, with the bill aiming to remove “Secret Service protection for those who have been sentenced to prison following conviction for a Federal or State felony,” according to a press release from April. In light of the shooting at Trump’s rally, the importance of the Secret Service protection given to former presidents was demonstrated for all to see.

“This measure would apply to former President Trump. It also would apply to all Secret Service protectees convicted and sentenced under felony charges,” according to a fact sheet.

“Unfortunately, current law doesn’t anticipate how Secret Service protection would impact the felony prison sentence of a protectee—even a former President,” Thompson said in the press release. “It is regrettable that it has come to this, but this previously unthought-of scenario could become our reality. Therefore, it is necessary for us to be prepared and update the law so the American people can be assured that protective status does not translate into special treatment—and that those who are sentenced to prison will indeed serve the time required of them.”

Co-sponsors of the bill include Democratic Reps. Troy A. Carter Sr., Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Frederica Wilson, Rep. Yvette Clarke, Rep. Bonnie Coleman, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Joyce Beatty and Steve Cohen, according to the release.

Less than three months ago, @BennieGThompson attempted to revoke Trump’s Secret Service protection. https://t.co/UblqtaSU7E pic.twitter.com/t6QFjKsk4i

— Avik Roy (@Avik) July 14, 2024

The suspected shooter was killed by the Secret Service, with one spectator dead and two critically injured, the Secret Service said Saturday on X. Trump praised the Secret Service for their protection, thanking “The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania,” he said in a Saturday post on Truth Social.

The Committee on Homeland Security and the Secret Service did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].

An eyewitness at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, told the BBC that he warned police about the gunman before Trump was shot at approximately 6:15 p.m. The interview, which was shared widely on social media, sparked outrage.

The head of the Secret Service and the leader of this security detail should resign https://t.co/ihlEC5NP1w

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 14, 2024

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced Saturday evening: “I have already contacted the Secret Service for a briefing and am also calling on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to appear for a hearing.”

Cheatle was appointed by President Joe Biden to be director of the Secret Service in 2022. Her 25-year career included a stint serving on Biden’s security detail when he was vice president.

Sean Davis, CEO and co-founder of The Federalist, reported that Trump’s security detail had requested “beefed up protection and resources for weeks, but has been rebuffed time and again.”

BREAKING: A source familiar with Trump’s security detail tells @FDRLST that the former and future president’s detail has been asking for beefed up protection and resources for weeks, but has been rebuffed time and again by Biden’s DHS.

DHS, which oversees Secret Service…

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 14, 2024

The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for making such decisions.

For example, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas personally declined a request from independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secret Service protection.

It’s long past time for Biden to put pettiness aside and grant Secret Service protection to @RobertKennedyJr

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) July 14, 2024

The Heritage Foundation’s Christian Lasval posted video from June 13 in Washington, D.C., revealing that he was able to stand approximately 10 feet from Trump without any interference from law enforcement.

On the ill preparedness of the Secret Service today: I recorded this approx. 10ft from President Trump on June 13.

I walked up to where I took this video about 2 minutes before Trump walked out of the door.

I was never screened before getting this close. pic.twitter.com/11oBfP0tJF https://t.co/6PloCKS08z

— Christian Julio Lasval (@christianlasval) July 14, 2024

Members of Congress sounded off Saturday night as more details emerged about the shooting.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, praised Secret Services officers for their swift reaction but questioned the agency’s leadership during an interview on Fox News.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., demanded the Democrat-led Senate initiate an investigation to reveal what happened.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee must investigate this assassination attempt and attempted mass murder and get to the bottom of how it could have happened

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 14, 2024

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, in introduced legislation in April to remove Trump’s protection.

“This legislation would reform the U.S. Secret Service’s protective mission by automatically terminating Secret Service protection for those who have been sentenced to prison following conviction for a federal or state felony,” Thompson announced at the time.

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, blamed the assassination attempt on the rhetoric of Biden and other progressive Democrats. Vance called for Thompson to be expelled from Congress.

Remember this? I do.

Kick his ass out of Congress. Absolute scumbag. https://t.co/vq7JBMVU2v

— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) July 13, 2024

As lawmakers examine Saturday evening’s incident, the FBI announced that it would take the lead role in investigating the assassination attempt.