The Secret Service needs to develop “that envelope around [former] President Trump, just as we do Vice President [Kamala] Harris to avoid” future assassination attempts like the one Sunday in Florida because the “entire country is what would come unraveled” should a perpetrator be successful, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, told Newsmax.
Trump was playing golf Sunday when U.S. Secret Service agents protecting him fired at a man pointing an AK-style rifle with a scope.
Local authorities said the gunman, Ryan Wesley Routh, was 400 to 500 yards away from Trump and hiding in shrubbery while the former president was playing a round of golf at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
“There are circumstances of the parameters that [the Secret Service] put around, what work they do should be thrown out the window at this time,” Sessions said Monday during an appearance on Newsmax TV’s “Newsline.”
“You have a candidate who has not only been threatened every day, but who has been theoretically shot at or to be shot at, and those circumstances should change regardless of the circumstances."
Sessions said more secuirty is to come.
“We need to develop that envelope around President Trump, just as we do Vice President Harris, to avoid this, because the entire country is what would come unraveled, not simply just a shooting at a person. And I will engage as the chairman of federal oversight for Government Operations and the Federal Workforce. I will be reengaging in that today,” he added.
Ric Bradshaw, sheriff of Palm Beach County, said that when people get into the shrubbery around the course, “they’re pretty much out of sight.” Bradshaw said the entire golf course would have been lined with law enforcement if Trump were the sitting president, but because he’s not, “security is limited to the areas the Secret Service deems possible.”
Trump’s protective detail was bolstered days before the July assassination attempt in Pennsylvania because of a threat from Iran, U.S. officials said.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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