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The US congress has launched an investigation into “inexcusable security breaches” at Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania, piling pressure on the agency responsible for protecting presidents and presidential candidates.
Both Republicans and Democrats called on Sunday for an immediate investigation into the role played by the US Secret Service after what the FBI called an assassination attempt at the former president’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening.
“We’re launching an investigation into the inexcusable security breaches in Pennsylvania,” congressman Carlos Gimenez, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, wrote on X on Sunday. House speaker Mike Johnson also said Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle would be called to testify.
In a news conference early Sunday morning, FBI special agent Kevin Rojek said “it was surprising” that the shooter was able to get shots off. “There is going to be a long investigation into what took place,” he added.
The Secret Service’s protection extends to former presidents and vice presidents as well as their children under 16. It also includes major presidential and VP candidates within 120 days of presidential elections.
On Sunday morning, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that claims that the agency had turned down a request from Trump’s team for additional security were “absolutely false”.
“In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo,” Guglielmi said on X.
Known primarily for providing the president’s bodyguards, tasked with jumping in front of bullets, the US secret service’s role has mushroomed since its creation in 1865 to include advance scouting of public venues where presidents and major presidential candidates will be close to the public.
Trump on Saturday thanked the Secret Service and other law enforcement for their “rapid response” to the shooting.
But others focused on the agency’s apparent failings, with Johnson saying “the American people deserve to know the truth”. Newt Gingrich, a Republican former House speaker, said “Cheatle should be suspended immediately”.
Democratic lawmakers joined Republicans in calling on the Secret Service to explain how a shooter was able to get so close to Trump. Ruben Gallego, the Arizona congressman who is the Democratic party’s candidate for US Senate in the southwestern state, said the attack raised “grave concerns regarding the security measures — or lack thereof — that were taken to protect a former president of the United States”.
Gallego wrote to Cheatle calling on “all those responsible for the planning, approving and executing of this failed security plan to be held accountable and to testify before Congress immediately”.
Now part of the US Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service had earlier faced criticism for its role during the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Trump and other Republicans decried its decision to hand over information to the January 6 Select Committee in response to a subpoena.
On the day of the attack, Trump reportedly struggled with his Secret Service agents, demanding he be taken to join his supporters as they stormed the Congress. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified that Trump had wanted to be driven to the Capitol and tried to grab the car’s steering wheel as he was stopped by the Secret Service.
“Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel,” Hutchinson said the Secret Service told Trump, according to her congressional testimony.
Established under President Abraham Lincoln, the role of the Secret Service was initially to combat counterfeit currency. But after the assassinations of President James Garfield in 1881 and William McKinley in 1901, the Secret Service’s role was expanded to include protection. In 1917, Congress passed legislation making it a crime to threaten the president.
Since the Secret Service officially started protecting presidents, at least seven assaults have occurred, including the 1981 shooting of Ronald Reagan, according to a 2023 report from the Congressional Research Service.
Most recently, president George W Bush faced an assassination attempt in 2005 in Tbilisi Georgia, the CRS report said. A grenade was thrown from a crowd towards president Bush but failed to detonate, according to the FBI.
Only one attack, the attempt on John F Kennedy in 1963, has killed a president under Secret Service protection.
But the Secret Service does not provide information on threats, so the full scope of attempts on presidents and candidates “remains a matter of conjecture,” the CRS report said.
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