US dealing with ‘heightened threat environment’: Mayorkas

(NEW YORK) — The United States is dealing with a “heightened threat environment,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says, as the FBI is investigating an apparent second assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

It’s not only the “historic threat of foreign terrorists” that persists, but also home-grown extremists, Mayorkas said Tuesday.

“We’re now speaking of individuals radicalized to violence because of ideologies of hate, anti-government sentiment, personal narratives and other motivations propagated on online platforms,” the secretary said during the POLITICO AI & Tech Summit.

Threats from both at home and abroad are worrisome, senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and members of Congress say. FBI Director Christopher Wray has previously said he sees “blinking red lights everywhere” in terms of terror threats.

On Sunday, Ryan Wesley Routh was allegedly lying in wait for nearly 12 hours near the Republican presidential nominee’s West Palm Beach golf course before a Secret Service agent spotted him, according to a criminal complaint.

Routh did not get off a single shot, Secret Service Acting Director Ron Rowe said Monday, and at no time was the former president in the sight line of the suspect. The suspect was taken into custody and faces charges of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, prosecutors said.

The former president has the same level of security that is “quite approximate” to President Joe Biden’s, Mayorkas said Tuesday, adding that agents did their job on Sunday and “they deserve to be commended for it.”

Trump, speaking Tuesday in a phone interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, also praised the Secret Service for stopping the apparent assassination attempt. 

“I’m fine. The Secret Service did a good job, actually,” he said.

Trump also spoke about the heightened threat environment, telling ABC News, “Probably always been dangerous, but it’s more so now, I think.”

In the wake of the July 13 attempted assassination of Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI issued a bulletin to law enforcement across the country warning them that violent extremists could try to conduct “follow-on or retaliatory” attacks at events over the next few months related to the 2024 presidential election.

During a March hearing in front of Congress, the FBI director testified that threats from various groups have reached a “whole other level.”

“Even before [Hamas’ attack against Israel on] October 7, I would have told this committee that we were at a heightened threat level from a terrorism perspective — in the sense that it’s the first time I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Wray said on March 11.

“The threats from homegrown violent extremists — that is jihadist-inspired, extremists, domestic violent extremists, foreign terrorist organizations and state-sponsored terrorist organizations — all being elevated at one time since October 7, though, that threat has gone to a whole other level,” he said at the time.

In the aftermath of the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, the Secret Service said it changed the way the former president is protected. Former director Kimberly Cheadle, who came under scrutiny for the agency’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt, also resigned.

Secretary Mayorkas appointed a new acting director — Rowe — and praised him for stepping up and leading the agency.

“I appreciate his willingness to lead the Secret Service at this incredibly challenging moment, as the agency works to get to the bottom of exactly what happened on July 13 and cooperate with ongoing investigations and Congressional oversight,” Mayorkas said at the time. “At the same time, the Secret Service must effectively carry on its expansive mission that includes providing 24/7 protection for national leaders and visiting dignitaries and securing events of national significance in this dynamic and heightened threat environment.”

During an April hearing in front of a congressional committee, the secretary said there’s been a “dramatic increase” in the number of threats facing Jewish and Muslim people in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

“We’re certainly operating in a charged political environment, and there are many reasons for that,” Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told ABC News on Monday.

“Certainly the partisanship of our country in recent years has something to do with it, easy access to buy military-style weapons also plays a role in it, and also importantly, our adversaries are purposefully trying to stoke divisions within our country between Americans through social media and other means,” he said.

The intelligence community has warned of foreign actors, mainly Russia, China and Iran, carrying out influence operations in the United States with an aim to divide the country ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department alleged that two employees of Russia Today, or RT — a Russian state-controlled media outlet, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme “to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government.”

“So it’s important that the Department of Justice just announced a series of actions to prosecute individuals who are involved in a Russian plot to try to divide Americans against each other politically,” said Magaziner, who’s also the ranking member on the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence.

“And we need all of our federal agencies, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, CISA [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency] and others, to remain vigilant and to expose those foreign actors who are trying to turn Americans against each other,” he added.

John Sandweg, former general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security under then-President Barack Obama, agreed.

“The situation is inflamed by a multitude of factors, but I do think it is important to emphasize the role that foreign state adversaries are playing — not only with regards to their support for extremist groups abroad, or efforts to disrupt and influence the election, but also through their efforts to further divide us as a nation,” Sandweg told ABC News on Monday, adding this is an “unprecedented” threat environment.