Memo to the United States Secret Service, the FBI, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department and all in charge of deciding who deserves what in presidential candidate security: Saying Donald Trump “is not the sitting president” is not a justification for failing to protect him.
In fact, after the second apparent attempt on the GOP presidential nominee’s life in a little more than two months, any law enforcement official invoking this excuse should be fired.
Case in point, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. The Democrat who has served as the southeast Florida county’s sheriff for 20 years — and is seeking a sixth term in November — uttered the same tired reasons for Sunday afternoon’s security lapse while the 45th president was playing a round at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
‘Horrendous and Unacceptable’
At a press conference Sunday, after a man was spotted in the club’s shrubbery and “in a position to shoot the former president,” Bradshaw was asked how this could happen again. How could a gunman get so close once more?
“At this level that he is at right now, [Trump] is not the sitting president,” Bradshaw told reporters. “If he was, we would have this entire golf course surrounded. But because he’s not, security is limited to the areas the Secret Service deems possible.”
The same lame excuses were offered following the assassination attempt against Trump at his July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump suffered a gun shot wound
