REHOBOTH BEACH — He Secret Service He acknowledged that he had rejected some requests from the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to increase security at its events years before the assassination attempt.
Immediately after the July 13 attack at a rally, the police agency denied having refused such requests but retracted its statement on Saturday night, a week after the attack. attack on Trumpacknowledging that he rejected some requests.
This recognition is likely to be a key theme of a congressional hearing on Monday, where the Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, appear before lawmakers over security failures that allowed a 20-year-old gunman to climb onto the roof of a nearby building in the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and firing his gun.
Trump was wounded in the right ear, one protester was killed and two others were injured. Secret Service agents killed the attacker.
“The Secret Service has a vast, dynamic and intricate mission. Every day we work in a dynamic threat environment to ensure our protected individuals are safe at multiple events, travel and other challenging environments,” agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement published late last night in the Washington Post. The newspaper was the first to report the agency’s reversal, which it said was based on detailed questions submitted to the office.
“In some cases where specific Secret Service specialized units or resources were not provided, the agency made modifications to ensure the safety of the protectee,” Guglielmi said. “This may include utilizing state or local partners to provide specialized functions or identifying alternatives to reduce a protectee’s public exposure,” he explained.
After the assassination attemptwhen reports began circulating that the agency had denied the Trump campaign’s requests, Guglielmi issued a denial.
“There is a false claim that a member of the former president’s team requested additional security resources and that they were denied,” Guglielmi said on social media. “This is absolutely false. In fact, we added resources, technology and protective capabilities as part of the increased pace of campaign travel,” he said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the incident a “failure,” while several lawmakers have called for Cheatle to step down. The Secret Service said its current director has no intention of resigning and so far retains the support of President Joe Biden and Mayorkas.
But the agency’s admission that it had denied some of the campaign’s requests prompted fresh condemnation on Sunday.
He Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike JohnsonRepublican of Louisiana, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that it was “unacceptable” and added that Cheatle “has a lot to answer for.”
Eric Trump, the Republican candidate’s son, said Cheatle should resign in “absolute shame.”
Biden, who is seeking to deny Trump a second term in the White House, has ordered an independent investigation. The Department of Homeland Security and congressional committees are also investigating.
Source: With information from AP
