Lawmakers request briefing with Secret Service on second attempted assassination on Trump
A group of bipartisan U.S. lawmakers on a task force looking into the assassination attempt against former President Trump have requested a briefing from the U.S. Secret Service on Sunday’s latest attempted murder of the former president.
On Sunday, a man with an AK-47 was fired upon by Secret Service agents after raising his rifle from a bush between 300 and 500 yards away from Trump, who was playing a round of golf at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The man fled and was later apprehended. The suspect has been identified as Ryan Routh.
In a statement later that day, task force chair Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and ranking member Jason Crow, D-Colo., released a joint statement after the attempted assassination.
“The Task Force is monitoring this attempted assassination of former President Trump in West Palm Beach this afternoon,” the bipartisan statement read. “We have requested a briefing with the U.S. Secret Service about what happened and how security responded.”
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The task force the two lawmakers sit on was established on Aug. 4 by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
It was established after a gunman opened fire on Trump at a Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally on July 13.
At the rally, Trump was speaking about the border when shots fired by 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks rang out from on top of a nearby building.
Crooks was about 150 yards away from Trump when he fired off eight rounds from an AR-15-style rifle, grazing the former president’s ear.
Sixty-four days after Trump was nearly killed, another gunman came within close proximity of the former president.
“We are thankful that the former President was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms,” Kelly and Crow wrote. “The Task Force will share updates as we learn more.”