Americans are losing confidence in the ability of the Secret Service to protect political candidates in the wake of an assassination attempt against former President Trump.
Trump was nearly killed by would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Crooks, 20, whose shot grazed the Republican presidential nominee’s ear, was swiftly eliminated by the Secret Service.
Fallout from the near-miss has led to intense criticism of the agency and the resignation of its director, Kimberly Cheatle.
The Associated Press/ NORC Research Center poll released Friday found 28% of Americans were “not very” confident or “not at all” confident that the Secret Service was still capable of its mission, while 40% said they were “somewhat” confident.
In addition, 29% of Americans were not confident the US Department of Homeland Security would conduct a “full and fair investigation” into the attempted assassination. Just 36% of Americans said they were very confident.
The numbers tended to become more extreme along partisan lines, with Democrats generally displaying more confidence in the Secret Service and DHS, while Republicans approached the agencies with more skepticism.
Strong majorities of Democrats and Republicans agreed on the root cause of the shooting, citing political divisions in the United States.
The Trump family has stood by the Secret Service. When queried about the issue Lara Trump, former president Trump’s daughter-in-law and co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, told The Post she continued to have complete confidence in the agency.
“I think the men and women of the United States Secret Service are some of the greatest people I’ve ever met, Eric [Trump] and I had a Secret Service detail for four years. The people around us were wonderful. The job they did was totally 100% professional,” Lara Trump said during a brief interview at the Republican convention last month.
The AP/NORC poll of 1,143 adults was conducted between July 25-29 and had a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points.
