It’s important that former President Donald Trump gets across the finish line on Nov. 5, and that means he needs extra protection, potentially involving assigning Navy SEALS to his detail, Sen. Tommy Tuberville said on Newsmax on Tuesday.
“I sent a letter to the acting Secret Service director to get answers to some questions,” the Alabama Republican told “Newsline.” “I don’t have anything against the Secret Service. I’m around them a lot. I’ve played golf with President Trump many times at that same course. They do a phenomenal job. But the problem is we’re running short on resources.”
Trump, he added, is a “different candidate” who works “14, 15, 16 hours a day, just like he did when he was president,” and that means extra help is needed to keep him safe.
“I’m very concerned about it,” he said. “We have a mental health problem in this country. I’m so excited about Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, doing his own investigation. I wouldn’t trust [FBI Director] Merrick Garland as far as I could throw him. So we might get a legitimate, assessment of what happened in this last assassination attempt.”
And in the case of Trump, “he is very popular on one side but he’s very disliked on the other,” said Tuberville.
One attempt on his life is too many, the senator added.
“How many lives does he have?” Tuberville said. “He is going to have to be very, very careful of what he’s doing, but he will not quit campaigning. But I think that’s what they want. They want to scare him to death and make sure that he cannot go out and answer questions to be around the people in this country. The Democrats aren’t going to do that because they don’t have the work ethic he has.”
The security effort can be fixed, but it will take more than the Secret Service, said Tuberville.
“They’re probably going to have to pull out local police, county police, state police, military SEAL teams,” he said. “He’s going to have better protection, more protection, more consistent protection.”
Trump will also have to keep up his campaign over the next weeks to keep talking to the American people, Tuberville added.
“He is going to be a target,” he said. “They’re going to keep calling him names. They’re going to say lies. They’re going to do everything they possibly can. And Donald Trump has to get out there in front of the American people, not on TV, in front of the American people, and tell them, this is what I’m telling you. This is the truth. Don’t listen to the left. Don’t listen to the progressives. This is how we’re going to do it. And that’s the way he’s going to win this election. He’s got to get out there and shake hands.”
Meanwhile, Tuberville said he wouldn’t trust “any of the three-letter groups in our country, the FBI, CIA, or the DOJ” to protect Trump.
“They’re taken over by the far left,” he said. “You are not going to get any help out of them on the right. You have some good people on that side, but they’re overwhelmed by the people that are there that are absolutely against the Republicans and the conservatives in this country.”