The acting director of the United States Secret Service, Ronald Rowe Jr., said the man arrested on suspicion of trying to kill Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump did not have “line of sight” to shoot the former president.
“The suspect did not have a line of sight to the former president and fled the scene. He did not fire at our officers,” Rowe said at a news conference, according to CNN.
On Sunday (15), the Secret Service detected a man hiding next to the fence of Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, when the former president was there.
The man, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, was carrying an AK-47 and fled after officers shot him. He was later arrested after a person who saw him flee gave authorities the license plate number of his car.
On Sunday, local sheriff Ric Bradshaw praised the Secret Service’s performance but said Trump has “limited” security because he is no longer president.
On Monday, Rowe denied that and said there is a “heavy uniformed presence” and “additional Secret Service assets” around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
“When you look at this pattern [de quando Trump estava no cargo] and you look at it today, there’s not much difference. There’s a heavy uniformed presence there,” the acting director said.
The Secret Service was heavily criticized for security failures during the first assassination attempt on Trump, at a rally in Pennsylvania in July, which led the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, to resign.
Rowe defended the Secret Service’s actions on Sunday. “In the days that followed [ao atentado do mês retrasado]the president [Joe] Biden made it clear he wanted the highest levels of protection for former President Trump and the Vice President [Kamala] Harris [candidata democrata à presidência]. The Secret Service sought to increase the assets and level of protection that it wanted. And those things were in place yesterday,” he argued.
“We put together a security plan, and that security plan worked,” said Rowe, who said Trump’s golf outing on Sunday was not on the candidate and former president’s official schedule.
Despite defending the agency’s work, the director said that the Secret Service requires more structure and budget. “We have to have success every day. We can’t have failures. And to do that, we’re going to have to have some tough conversations with Congress and we’re going to get there,” he said.
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