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Donald Trump has revealed that he worries about the safety of his family after two assassination attempts against him in a matter of weeks.
The former president was grazed by a bullet when 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Brooks opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
On September 15, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh was arrested after the barrel of his rifle was spotted through the fence at a Trump golf course in Florida where the ex-commander-in-chief was playing a round. A Secret Service agent opened fire and Routh fled, but he was later arrested as he drove his SUV on I-95.
Trump was asked by Fox News in an interview broadcast on Saturday night if he’s worried about the safety of his family following the two recent assassination attempts.
“I don’t talk about it, but I do. I have to worry about family. I have to worry about everybody,” he told the network.
“I worry about you,” he told host Brian Kilmeade.
But Trump was quick to turn the conversation to one of his favorite topics – immigration.
“Look, we’re under siege and no country has ever suffered like we have for the last three-and-a-half, almost four years,” he claimed.
“When they allow millions of people to come into our country, from prisons, right? From prisons. And terrorists, and people from mental institutions, and they take over our parks. Look at New York – you can’t play Little League baseball anymore,” the former president claimed.
He added that illegal immigrants are supposedly receiving better treatment than veterans in New York City.
Kilmeade also asked Trump if he thinks his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance will be treated fairly during the vice presidential debate with Kamala Harris’s running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
“He won’t get a fair shot,” Trump told Kilmeade. “But he will handle it very good.”
The debate on October 1 will be moderated by Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell.
“I think he’s done great. People are really liking him. He’s tough, smart, he loves our country. He’s going to have no trouble,” Trump claimed.
A report released on Friday criticized the breakdown in communications leading up to the July assassination attempt in Pennsylvania. The report outlined a number of missed opportunities to stop the gunman before he was able to open fire from an unsecured roof.
The failings during the shooting include the Secret Service not giving clear guidance to local law enforcement, a failure to rectify line-of-sight vulnerabilities at the rally site, and “complacency” among some of the agents working to protect Trump, according to acting director Ronald Rowe Jr.
“This was a failure on the part of the United States Secret Service. It’s important that we hold ourselves to account for the failures of July 13th and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” he said at a press conference.
The building from where Crooks opened fire had been identified as a possible risk ahead of the rally, but corrective actions were still not taken.
“Line-of-sight issues were acknowledged, but not properly mitigated. Issues were encountered the day of the visit with respect to line-of-sight concerns, but they were not escalated to supervisors,” Rowe said. “While some members of the advanced team were very diligent, there was complacency on the part of others that led to a breach of security protocols.”
