On Friday, the House unanimously voted to increase former and potentially future President Donald Trump's Secret Service protection. The Enhanced Presidential Security Act received a vote of 405-0. The bipartisan bill was introduced by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY), who came up with the bill after the first assassination attempt against Trump in July. The second attempt, just over two months later, happened on Sunday.
Such a bill provides the same USSS protection for the president, vice president, and candidates running for that office.
"Sadly, it has become necessary for Congress to get involved, and before this bill could even be VOTED on, a SECOND attempt to kill former President Trump occurred," Lawler posted over X shortly before the vote when sharing his interview with Fox News.
The interview highlighted the bipartisan support for the legislation, while also including clips of Democrats continuing to insist Trump is a "threat to democracy." Lawler noted that "everybody needs to tone it down," on the rhetoric, calling it "ridiculous" that Trump is considered such a threat. He also called out the Democrats for replacing President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris after "gaslight[ing] the nation about Joe Biden's cognitive abilities," adding, "you can't really talk about threats to democracy when you do that."
Elections are decided at the ballot box- not by bullets.
— Mike Lawler (@lawler4ny) September 20, 2024
I introduced this legislation after the FIRST attempt on former President Trump’s life in July.
Sadly, it has become necessary for Congress to get involved, and before this bill could even be VOTED on, a SECOND attempt to… pic.twitter.com/CHSa2pgryg
"If passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Biden, the bill would mandate a comprehensive review of USSS protective standards and impose uniform standards for the security of presidents, vice presidents and major White House candidates," Fox News reported.
While the vote was unanimous, top Democrats still seek to insert other issues. As Fox News also mentioned about Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee:
Progressive Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said he is backing the bill but argued it would be meaningless without stronger firearm laws.
"I support this legislation because the Secret Service must be able to protect our highest elected officials and candidates. But this legislation will do nothing to make the rest of us any safer, or change the fact that gun violence continues to take the lives of more than 100 Americans every single day," Nadler said.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, pushed back on Nadler's comments and accused him of painting the assassination attempts as "Republicans' fault."
"Next thing they're going to say is, oh, some crazy guy on the left tries to assassinate President Trump, and it's President Trump's fault. Oh, wait a minute. They said that too. This is ridiculous," Jordan said.
Nadler is not the only one to discuss gun control in the context of the assassination attempts against Trump, as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, went for the same move during Thursday's hearing about the failures of the Biden-Harris administration.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has frequently been sharing updates from whistleblowers when it comes to damning revelations about the USSS and its failures in doing more to adequately protect the Republican nominee. Hawley released a report on Monday, the day after this second attempt.
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