The U.S. Secret Service has denied diverting resources away from protecting former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally where he was the target of an assassination attempt, in order to protect first lady Jill Biden.
Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics reported on social media that unnamed sources told her resources were diverted away from Trump to protect the first lady, who was also campaigning in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“This is the problem that my Secret Sources have cited: Secret Services resources were diverted to Jill Biden’s event and away from Trump’s because they followed agency protocol applying to Trump as a former president, according to two sources within the Secret Service community,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“There were also many supplemental agents from different field officers (not Trump’s regular detail) providing security at the rally because Trump’s regular detail has been overworked (some working seven days straight), and only two counter-snipers… Who made the decision to divert the resources to Jill Biden’s event?”
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, responded to Crabtree’s post, saying it was false.
“We did not divert resources from FPOTUS Trump & protection models don’t work that way,” Guglielmi wrote.
“As far as ‘field office teams’ these are the candidate nominee operations teams that are added during election years for the heavy travel tempo.”
The Secret Service has been contacted for further comment via email.
Saturday evening’s shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, left the former president with a bloodied ear, killed one rallygoer and seriously injured two others.
The FBI on Sunday identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks was fatally shot by Secret Service agents.
The FBI said the investigation remains active and ongoing.
Trump thanked the Secret Service and law enforcement for their response after the shooting.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
In a prime-time address on Sunday, President Joe Biden sharply condemned the attack and urged Americans to reject political violence.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence—for any violence. Ever. Period. No exception,” he said. “We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.”
Earlier on Sunday, Biden said he had a “short but good conversation” with Trump in the hours after the attack and was “sincerely grateful that’s he’s doing well and recovering.”
Biden said that as a former president and Republican nominee, Trump “already receives a heightened level of security.”
He said: “I have been consistent in my direction to the Secret Service to provide him with every resource, capability, and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety.”
Biden also said he has directed the Secret Service to review all security measures for the Republican National Convention, which kicks off on Monday in Wisconsin.
