House Majority Leader Steve Scalise today says the Secret Service has been ignoring calls to beef up former President Trump's protection team.
The Metairie Republican told WWL's Newell Normand that after another plot to kill Trump, they need to see action.
"We've been talking the Secret Service about this for a while, and for whatever ready they still haven't ramped up the number of officers, and that has to change."
Federal authorities say the secret service did not have the resources to secure the entire golf course, but were traveling with the former president to protect him Sunday, when they spotted a gunman hiding in a wooded area along the golf course.
Agents fired at the suspect before he fled and was arrested a short time later.
Scalise says amid a shortage of Secret Service employees, the agency needs to reevaluate how officers are allocated and the criteria used to hire candidates. He insists one of the problems is efforts to hire minorities and more diverse agents, rather than simply the best people for the job; regardless if their demographics.
"They've changed over the years the criteria on how they hire people and gotten away from the basics of what you what you hire somebody to be Secret Service agents for, you know, and try to get DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), woke things implemented in the criteria for hiring," Scalise insisted.
"That's just not why you are supposed to be hiring Secret Service agents. They are supposed to be the best people that are fit to be protecting presidents, vice presidents and former presidents."
He says current policies even make it difficult for former military special forces to join the ranks of the Secret Service.
The Majority Leader says the agency complains they have an agent shortage, yet they won't even consider some very qualified candidates.
"There are some standards that have been changed... for example Navy Seals who come off duty and after they retire want to go into something like the secret service; some of the rules block them from even applying."
