The first public hearing of the task force investigating a pair of assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump convened Thursday.
Most of the hearing focused on testimony from local law enforcement in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman fired a rifle at Trump while he was onstage at a rally in July.
Members of Congress made it clear from the outset that the fault was with the Secret Service, not local law enforcement.
“I think we realized it was entirely preventable. But because of failures by the Secret Service, the shooting was not prevented,” said Chair Mike Kelly, the Republican who represents Butler.
He noted the shooter was about to scout and identify “weaknesses in the Secret Service’s security plan using both a drone and a rangefinder.”
Kelly said documents and witness testimony indicate there were several “fundamental failures” on July 13, and Thursday’s public hearing was “the latest attempt to seek accountability and answers on what happened.”
Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, the ranking member of the task force, opened by saying, “Political violence has no place in our democracy, period. We must be united in our belief as Americans, not as Republicans or Democrats, that political disagreement is settled through rigorous debate, not violence.”
Several Republicans have blamed Democrats’ rhetoric for the attempts on Trump’s life.
Crow said the hearing was about establishing “the facts of the security failures of July 13 so that we can help ensure that those failures never happen again.”
Kelly pointed to three: failure of Secret Service planning, failure to properly manage the public’s access to the area surrounding the rally site, and lastly a security communications and command structure that was not cohesive. His questioning focused on those issues.
Crow focused his questioning on the lack of a single unified command and control system, the approach to sniper deployment and why the Secret Service allowed Trump to go onstage.
“It was the fault of the Secret Service because the Secret Service is ultimately responsible for the protection at events like that. They did not do their job. They did not provide the clarity and the guidance to local law enforcement. And that was pretty clear today,” Crow said after the hearing.
Much of the questioning from the panel members, many of whom are former military or law enforcement, focused on security planning. They pointed to the lack of walk-throughs, the number of people outside of the security perimeter and radio communications. They also touched on the potential of Iran-backed threats and unclear guidance for local law enforcement.
Crow said the task force hopes to assure Americans that candidates and elected officials are secure and protected.
Both Crow and Kelly stated the next phase of the investigation will focus on the Secret Service, but Crow said the task force is still working out a schedule because the agency is focused on protecting the candidates in the last weeks of the election.
Democratic members of the task force, however, did not stay to question the second panel, which was comprised of two Republican members of Congress, Reps. Eli Crane and Cory Mills. Crane and Mills are not on the panel, but they have said they’re leading their own independent investigation into the assassination attempts.
“It’s unclear to us what testimony will be provided by [Crane and Mills] that relates to today’s hearing,” Crow said.
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