Senators “appalled” by DHS failures and demand answers over lack of information on Trump assassination

Senators from both parties said Thursday they were “appalled” by the security failures that led to the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, demanding more information from the Department of Homeland Security before a report on the near-tragedy is expected.

Members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee met with acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe for a closed-door briefing on the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, that killed Trump rally attendee Corey Comperatore and injured the 45th president and two others.

“I believe the American people will be shocked, astonished and appalled by what we will tell them about the Secret Service’s failures in this assassination attempt on a former president,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the panel’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

“But I think they should also be appalled and astonished by the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to be more open and honest with them in providing information,” he added after leaving the press conference.

Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the ranking Republican on the committee, said members expressed their “frustration” with Rowe during the meeting.

“There’s still a lot we don’t know, and I think there’s been some frustration expressed, I think, to Acting Director Rowe,” Johnson told reporters. “He’s committed to providing more information.”

Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Michigan) said the meeting with the Secret Service had produced “a lot of information,” but the panel “still has a long way to go” and will release an interim report “shortly.”

“It identifies very specific mistakes that were made,” added Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the committee’s ranking member. “It’s still inexcusable to me that a guy has a rangefinder 90 minutes before a rally and you don’t stop the proceedings.”

Peters, Paul, Johnson and Blumenthal stressed that the investigation was entirely bipartisan and the report will be entirely bipartisan. Johnson said he expects the preliminary document to be released before Congress goes into recess later this month.

The lawmakers also stressed that there was not enough accountability within the Secret Service.

When asked if more people should resign, Blumenthal replied: “Without a doubt and without question there needs to be more accountability. People need to be held accountable.”

“Without accountability, these kinds of mistakes and failures will be repeated because there has to be a sense that someone is the point of contact,” he said.

Police had already identified 20-year-old would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks as a “suspicious” attendee at the Trump event on the Butler Farm Show grounds more than an hour and a half before he climbed to the roof of the AGR International building and aimed his gun at the 45th president on the main stage.

Crooks fired eight shots, striking 78-year-old Trump in the right ear, killing Comperatore and critically wounding 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver. A Secret Service sniper fired a ninth bullet, knocking Crooks down.

Since then, Secret Service whistleblowers, congressional hearings, and committee investigations have uncovered security flaws that allowed Crooks to shoot the former president from just 110 yards away, even though he had a clear line of sight.

Agents on the ground received word that Crooks posed a “threat” just ten minutes before Trump began his speech – but they did nothing.

“At 6:08 [p.m.]man on a roof should have stopped him,” Paul told reporters after the meeting. “They say the walkie-talkies weren’t communicating with each other. Someone should have shouted it from the rooftops.”

“This information was transmitted by radio to the security tent, the security command and the control point at around 6:10 a.m. [p.m.]There are still a few seconds left,” he said.

“I have a lot of respect for the police,” Paul added. “I mean, it’s a tough job and people make mistakes, but I think the people who were responsible for security that day shouldn’t do it again.”

Republican Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida said Thursday afternoon on Fox News’ “The Story” that Trump’s life was in danger due to a “complete communications breakdown.”

“Various places saw the shooter, saw him with the rangefinder, saw someone on the roof, and people called the local police. That wasn’t transmitted over the regular radio. [network],” he told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum.

“A lot of people are wondering, ‘Why was President Trump allowed to continue with this suspicious activity?’ Well, the shift supervisor, his key security officer, didn’t know about it — it wasn’t communicated to him,” Waltz added. “What was relayed was sort of point-to-point by text message, by phone, and they didn’t follow the protocols to get it out there… [that] ‘We have a suspect here, everyone pay attention.'”

Authorities later found explosives in Crooks’ car, which was parked at the rally site, and a radio transmitter on his body, but neither the Secret Service nor the FBI were able to determine the shooter’s motive.

“The Department of Homeland Security’s failure to be more open is promoting conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality,” Blumenthal said.

Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, told reporters last month that the Crooks had conducted “more than 60 searches related to President Biden and former President Trump” as part of a “comprehensive attack plan” – and even sought information about the Republican and Democratic national conventions.

“We have not found any credible evidence that the perpetrator was conspiring with anyone else,” Rojek said, rejecting all speculation about a second shooter.

The crooks posted on Discord and may have also done so on the alt-right social media platform Gab, according to its CEO Andrew Torba, who claimed the shooter was spreading messages “in support of President Biden.”

The FBI revealed that the crooks not only conducted online searches – asking, among other things, for details on the distance between assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and President John F. Kennedy – but also maintained encrypted messaging accounts abroad.

In addition to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, a special House task force and the department’s Office of the Inspector General are investigating aspects of the shooting.