Former President Donald Trump described more details about the second attempt on his life on Tuesday night, praising the Secret Service agent who possibly prevented shots from being fired at the Republican nominee on Sunday.
Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the apparent assassination attempt at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, is a “very different story” from when a shooter fired upon him in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The former president praised the “very sharp agent” who saw the barrel of an AK-47-style rifle sticking out of a fence around 400 yards from where Trump was playing golf.
“In this particular case, you had a very sharp agent, as good as you could find, and did a fantastic job, but somebody could have missed the barrel of that rifle,” Trump said. “Somebody of lesser talents or somebody that was distracted could have missed or could have been shot, I mean, frankly, could have also been shot.”
“But in this case, it worked out very well,” he continued, adding, “Butler is a very different story. Somebody should have been on that building, and that’s a different story.”
Trump was shot in the right ear in Butler on July 13 after gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks gained access to a rooftop point just 130 yards away from the Republican nominee. Crooks fired eight shots and killed one rallygoer, Corey Comperatore, and wounded two other attendees.
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Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) released a report earlier this week on the security failures at Trump’s Butler rally. The report stated that the incident was the “most stunning breakdown in presidential security since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.”
Asked by Hannity if the Department of Homeland Security, which is over the Secret Service, has rejected any requests from the Trump campaign for more resources, Trump replied, “We have long requested more people.” He added that “if there’s a weakness” with his Secret Service protection, it’s that his detail needs more “manpower.”
“We have tremendous rallies and crowds, and that’s a good thing, but you need more protection,” Trump said. “I will say, in Butler, we wanted more protection … and we never seemed to get that.”
After the second assassination attempt on Trump, President Joe Biden said the Secret Service “needs more help,” and top lawmakers pushed for the agency to provide Trump with more protection.
“President Trump needs the most coverage of anyone. He’s the most attacked. He’s the most threatened, even probably more than when he was in the Oval Office,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said earlier this week.
Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut also said Trump’s detail needs to be beefed up, saying the second assassination attempt “is deeply alarming and appalling.”
