Following a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., urged President Joe Biden on Newsmax on Tuesday to increase Secret Service protection for Trump.
Langworthy, during an appearance on "The Chris Salcedo Show," urged Biden to extend the full range of security detail typically provided to sitting presidents, emphasizing the seriousness of recent assassination attempts against Trump.
"President Trump needs the full security detail afforded the president, United States, and on Sunday, I called for President Biden to issue that to him," he said.
"And we need to use every lever that we have to make sure that both nominees for the presidency are fully protected as if they were the current president. We can't afford to have America's election, you know, struck down by an assassin's bullet," he added.
"The American people deserve a choice here," Langworthy continued. "President Trump deserves to have the foresight to know that he is safe when he's out there campaigning and taking his message to the American people, and, you know, once is too many times."
He praised the members of Congress currently investigating the security failures around the assassination attempts and stressed the importance of thoroughly reviewing the incident.
"We have a full sense of urgency, and we have excellent members of Congress that are on this panel. They are going to do a thorough job and come out with a full report as to what went wrong. We need to have a document that takes us forward into the next administration," he said.
Langworthy's comments come after an apparent assassination attempt on Trump while he was golfing near his Florida club on Sunday. Although the former president was unharmed, the incident marks the second attempt on his life in less than two months.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested and charged with firearms offenses after Secret Service agents spotted the muzzle of his rifle protruding through the shrubbery lining Trump's West Palm Beach golf course.
On July 13, Trump survived a shooting at an open-air campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired multiple rounds, wounding Trump, killing one audience member, and injuring two others before being killed by Secret Service agents.
Langworthy also commended the Secret Service agents involved in the recent incident for their bravery but pointed out that current security protocols are lacking.
"Those agents that saw that gun pointing through [the shrubbery], they did a courageous job," he said. "But the fact that he doesn't have the same perimeter status around him as the sitting president, I think, is a grave mistake."
The congressman called for immediate action to ensure Trump's safety as he continues his 2024 campaign. "If we don't get him the full security detail he needs, we could have a grave consequence coming," Langworthy concluded.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.
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Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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