Far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is claiming that "at least five" known "assassination teams" are hunting former President Donald Trump, in a statement posted to his congressional website.
Gaetz's statement, and similar claims he delivered to Breitbart News' Mike Slater in an interview, comes after two high-profile attempts on the former president's life in the past three months — one of which left Trump with an ear injury.
“I am starting to get the impression that we do not have enough force protection of supporting President Trump that we ought to have, given the threat environment,” said Gaetz. “And, with that type of activity, I don’t think we should be allowing people to set up for an extended period of time and wait to take their shot outside of his golf properties or his other properties.”
He also complained that, “We’ve seen a few times where resources have been pulled off of the Trump detail for the Jill Biden detail or for the John Bolton detail. And we’re going to question whether or not that was sound, given what we knew about the efforts to kill Trump.”
Gaetz claimed to have obtained the knowledge of the assassination teams from a senior Department of Homeland Security official, but did not elaborate on who it was or what evidence he was shown.
He said two of the "teams" are domestic, but three are operated internationally.
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“Three of these teams are foreign-inspired, from my understanding: Iranians, Ukraine, Pakistan," he said, while providing no evidence.
However, he added, he believes there is “insufficient scrutiny to stop" the assassination teams from operating out in the open.
The plots against Trump have resulted in a firestorm of accusations by Republicans that Democrats have encouraged the plots by criticizing the former president's policies and rhetoric as dangerous to democracy — despite the fact that Trump's campaign has similarly proclaimed Vice President Kamala Harris to be "fascist."
