It isn’t just Donald Trump. Law enforcement sources say that the threat level to VP Kamala Harris is very high and the Secret Service needs more people to protect these candidates.
NBC News’s Tom Winter said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
Now you’ve got this backdrop, and they can’t wait for Congress to start appropriating money this week or next week; they can’t wait for somebody to come up with a new plan. I think there are going to be some very serious discussions and I’m told they started last night, how does the rest of this presidential campaign work with these candidates crisscrossing the country?
We are told that the threats to Donald Trump, quite obviously here from what we’ve seen over the past two months, are very high, but his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, the threats are very high as well. You have family members; you have running mates for both of those candidates, and you still have a president in the White House who has the nuclear codes and all the things that come with being the commander-in-chief who deserves and is required by law to have the protection that Joe Biden has.
So, putting it all together, what is going to happen here going forward, and how much of a lean will the Secret Service have to put on local law enforcement? How much of a lean will the Department of Homeland Security have to put on its other agencies to say these guys need some help? They just need bodies out there. It’s very different than normal law enforcement work so it’s not something where you can just say, okay, one day I’m investigating a crime, I can switch over to protecting somebody. No, it’s very different. It’s a special skill set and special training, but they definitely need additional help, it appears, based on the people that I’m talking to.
Video:
NBC’s Tom Winter, “We are told that the threats to Donald Trump from what we’ve seen over the past two months are very high, but his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, the threats to her are very high as well.” #MorningJoe pic.twitter.com/Awi1nMo9Rq
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 16, 2024
We have a security crisis in this country that is being fueled by divisive rhetoric and easy access to assault weapons. It is not a coincidence that each of the attempts on Trump involved an assault weapon. Assault weapons are both easy to purchase and make it easy to attempt to shoot someone.
These attempts have been made against Trump, but it isn’t just the ex-president who is under threat. The threat level to Vice President Kamala Harris is also very high. It is probably phenomenally high, given the political tone in the country, her standing in the polls, and the kind of history she is trying to make.
If the Secret Service can’t get more people on the ground to secure these campaign events, don’t be surprised if both campaigns are asked to scale back their plans for large public events for the remainder of the election calendar.
More security will get the nation through the next 50 days, but political violence has been on the rise for years, and the answer is to both make it more difficult to obtain an assault weapon and make a conscious effort to change the tone of the political dialogue in this country.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
