Fleischmann: Congress should act now if more funds needed to protect Trump

(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee is calling for the FBI and U.S. Secret Service to appear before Congress after a second assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.

The Secret Service discovered a rifle pointing through a chain link fence at a golf club where Trump was playing. The gun was 400 to 500 yards away from the former president, law enforcement officials said.

The man, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, did not fire a shot and is facing federal charges of possession of a firearm as a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

It is the second investigation of an assassination attempt on Trump in as many months. On July 13, a 20-year-old shooter fired at a Trump rally in Butler, Pa., killing one and wounding Trump. The shooter, identified as Thomas Crooks, was killed by the Secret Service.

Fleischmann called for the two federal law enforcement agencies to appear before Congress in a social media post on Monday. The FBI and the Secret Service are probing the incident. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said his state would also investigate.

"If more resources are required to protect President Trump, Congress must be told NOW and Congress must act immediately to provide those resources," Fleischmann said in a post on Facebook .

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn said she is sending a letter to the Secret Service demanding that Trump receive the same protection as President Joe Biden.

"He has had two failed assassination attempts in the last two months," Blackburn said in a post on X . "This is completely unacceptable."

Tennessee's other senator blamed the assassination attempts on Trump's political opponents.

"This dangerous rhetoric coming from the left must stop – and not restart a few days later like it did following the first Trump assassination attempt," Sen. Bill Hagerty said in a social media post.