House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) weighed in on the second apparent assassination attempt against former President Trump in an interview Friday, calling Trump “unshakeable.”
Johnson said he met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago shortly after the incident earlier this month, spending three hours with him.
“He was not shaken,” Johnson told radio hosts John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby on Friday. “I’ll tell you. You all know Donald Trump as well as I do. I mean, he is, he is unshakable.”
“And the thing is that there’s no person and no leader in the history of America that’s been so attacked … as he has so aggressively … and yet remained so strong and resilient,” the Speaker added. “But he still needs protection, and it’s inexcusable that it has not been provided as needed.”
When asked on the “Cats & Cosby Show” for his response on recent legislation unanimously passed by the House that would expand the former president’s security in light of the threats, the Johnson gave credit to the bipartisan duo that introduced it.
“You can thank our New York delegation for that,” he said, making reference to Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.).
“Mike Lawler led this bill. He had the foresight to present it in the Congress, and we got it through the House. We’re sending it to the Senate,” he continued. “What this bill does is it will require the same level of protection for Donald J. Trump as is provided by a sitting president.”
Johnson added, “I think every American who looks at this and thinks about it objectively will understand there is a dire necessity to do that. I mean, he had the second assassination attempt.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) proposed a similar bill in the upper chamber that includes presidential candidates and their running mates, as well as their spouses. It also adds that Secret Service should provide “any necessary protective measure.”
The legislation came less than a week after a Secret Service agent spotted and engaged with Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, an alleged gunman, who pointed his rifle through the fence at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida while the former president was playing. Routh fled the scene but was later apprehended and charged earlier this week for gun crimes.
The course of events marks the second apparent assassination attempt against Trump, after a gunman grazed the GOP presidential nominee’s ear with a bullet during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pa. The would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and one other rallygoer were killed and two others wounded, during the shooting.
