The former president’s comments suggest that he will more aggressively turn the assassination attempt into a political cudgel.
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Former President Donald J. Trump speaks on the final night of the Republican National Convention last week.
After initially praising the Secret Service following the near-miss assassination attempt this month, former President Donald J. Trump for the first time blamed his political rivals, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, for failing to protect him.
“The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy,” Mr. Trump posted on his social media website, Truth Social, on Tuesday.
The comments indicate the Trump team intends to continue raising questions about the Secret Service over the security lapses that put Mr. Trump’s life in danger. But his remarks also suggest the former president and his team will more aggressively turn the assassination attempt into a political cudgel to be used against the administration and Ms. Harris, who is likely to be the Democratic Party’s nominee in the presidential race.
Mr. Trump has told associates he has full confidence in his own Secret Service detail — and he thanked them in a social media post shortly after the shooting — but his team has long-running tensions with the agency. Those tensions are related to requests for additional resources that were denied. Over roughly two years, a number of requests for items like additional metal detectors and specially trained dogs were turned down, according to a campaign official.
Even a request for metal detectors while Mr. Trump attended his son Barron’s high school graduation was initially rebuffed, a campaign official said, though it was eventually granted.
In the immediate days after the shooting, agency officials initially denied that such requests had been turned down. But in a statement to The New York Times on July 20, they acknowledged that some requests had indeed been denied.
A number of missed opportunities to stop the 20-year-old gunman — perched on a sloped roof of a low building less than 500 feet from Mr. Trump — have become public. And the more those reports have emerged, the angrier the former president’s aides and allies have become.
At the Republican National Convention last week, Republican senators chased the Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, demanding answers to questions they said she was evading about the shooting. A G.O.P. staffer filmed the encounter, which ended only after Ms. Cheatle escaped into a restroom, according to the senators.
Ms. Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, amid a bipartisan swell of criticism.
She testified on Monday in front of the House Oversight Committee, under subpoena, and was unable or unwilling to answer many of the lawmakers’ questions about how it was that the Secret Service allowed the former president to be in a position of such vulnerability.
Ms. Cheatle acknowledged during her testimony that there were “colossal” problems with the security provided for Mr. Trump at the rally. And Republicans had begun a push to impeach her.
Maggie Haberman is a senior political correspondent reporting on the 2024 presidential campaign, down ballot races across the country and the investigations into former President Donald J. Trump. More about Maggie Haberman
Jonathan Swan is a political reporter covering the 2024 presidential election and Donald Trump’s campaign. More about Jonathan Swan
See more on: 2024 Elections, U.S. Politics, U.S. Secret Service, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden
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Source: nytimes.com
