The Secret Service will come under intensified scrutiny and criticism following a second assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on Sunday, two former federal law officials told Newsmax.
Former Secret Service special agent Charles Marino and former deputy assistant FBI Director Mark Morgan expressed incredulousness that a second would-be assassin was able to get within a few hundred yards of Trump with a rifle.
"It's going to bring up questions again for the agency," Marino said on Newsmax's special coverage of the event. "And that is: Are the resources being brought to bear to protect the former president adequate in the face of the threats that the former president is facing?
"And of course, the question is: How did this guy get so close and be allowed to set up in a position to carry out an attack? You know, 300 yards away is not very far, and it's going to lead to the questions again of the security plan and the perimeters that are put in place."
Trump was playing golf at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, early Sunday afternoon, when at least one of the Secret Service agents surveilling the holes ahead of Trump's playing party noticed a rifle barrel protruding from a hedged area along the side of the course.
Agents engaged the would-be gunman, firing several shots and forcing him to flee. A suspect was arrested on Interstate 95 in neighboring Martin County and being held.
On July 13, another would-be assassin was able to climb atop a structure adjoining an outdoor rally area in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was holding a campaign rally. The shooter was able to fire eight shots, wounding Trump, killing one man, and critically injuring two others.
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