Secret Service denies that Trump had requested more security before assassination attempt

The Secret Service denied allegations that former President Donald Trump‘s team requested reinforcements as questions mount about how a shooter was able to get so close to the former president during his rally.

Following the attempted assassination attempt against Trump Saturday during his rally in Pennsylvania, the Secret Service has been under scrutiny over the incident, and allegations that Trump’s team had previously requested additional resources, and were denied them, have continued to circulate.

Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, denied such accusations on Sunday morning.

“There’s an untrue assertion that a member of the former President’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed. This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo” Guglielmi posted in a statement to X.

The comment from the Secret Service comes after the Federalist reported that a source familiar with Trump’s Secret Service Security detail had “been asking for beefed up protection and resources for weeks, but has been rebuffed time and again by Biden’s DHS. DHS, which oversees Secret Service protective detail “wasn’t responsive to those requests” for more resources.”

Billionaire Bill Ackman worried over the rumor, noting that independent presidential candidate RFK Jr. had also expressed concerns over his Homeland Security Secretary Alexandro Mayorkas refusing his request five times for Secret Service protection. Kennedy’s father and uncle, President John F. Kennedy, were both assassinated during their time in politics. Ackman demanded “Biden-level security” for both candidates “for the sake of our democracy,” in a post to X.

Tech mogul Elon Musk added his criticism of the Secret Service to a post to X on Saturday evening. “The head of the Secret Service and the leader of this security detail should resign,” Tech mogul slammed the agency after the attempt to take out Trump. Later, he posted to X “Extreme incompetence or it was deliberate,” Musk slammed the agency over the weekend.

The Secret Service continues to face criticism for how close the shooter, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get in such close proximity to the former president.

After the attempted assassination attempt on Trump, witnesses at the Pennsylvania rally told BBC News that they observed Crooks crawling up the roof with a rifle. The rally attendees say they warned the police and Secret Service for at least two to three minutes before Crooks opened fire on the former president.

On Sunday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson says he expressed concern to Mayorkas that the agency failed to use drones and other security measures to eliminate deadly threats to the former president.

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“We need to know how an individual could be at that elevation that was seen by, apparently, bystanders on the ground. How could not that not be noticed by Secret Service? Lots more questions than answers this morning,” Johnson worried during an interview on the Today Show.

“I asked Secretary Mayorkas last night … were drones being used in the vicinity? I mean, that would be an obvious thing. You would be able to spot someone on a roof. He didn’t know when I asked him that question,” the GOP leader added.