A former chair of the House Oversight Committee has suggested that the Secret Service was “spread too thin”, which compounded the issue that local police would not have been “trained up” to secure an event like Saturday’s rally.
Jason Chaffetz, who has previously reported on Secret Service failures, told the Washington Post there was no bigger “threat profile” than for Trump or President Biden, but that this was not reflected in the security presence in Pennsylvania.
The Secret Service has denied suggestions that a request from the Trump team to beef up the staffing had been rebuffed in advance of the rally.
But the Post reported that it had seen an exchange of messages in which a former Secret Service officer asked colleagues how the suspect had got a gun so close to Trump. He was reported to have received the reply: “Resources.”
In a statement on Monday, Ms Cheatle said changes had been made to Trump’s Secret Service detail ahead of the start of the Republican National Convention, which kicks off in Milwaukee on Monday. She said she was “confident” in the overall plan.
