After House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, nominated candidates to serve on the Trump Assassination Attempt Task Force, committee members expressed a bipartisan desire to determine how the historic tragedy happened in the first place.
Rep. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican whose district includes the Butler Farm Show where the assassination attempt on President Trump occurred, was appointed chairman of the committee.
Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat who served as a U.S. Army Ranger in the Middle East, was named the committee’s ranking member, and several other members also have law enforcement or military backgrounds.
Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), who toured the Butler facility last week, said the incident transcended party lines and that after visiting Pennsylvania he realized where problems could have likely gone wrong.
A Democratic official who visited Butler said local officials told him “we need to have more conversations” about Secret Service failures.
Former President Trump was hurriedly carried off the stage after a shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“Following the assassination attempt on former President Trump, I toured the site with a bipartisan group of colleagues and it appears there were some security lapses, and this is not the first major security lapse for a national candidate,” Correa said.
“This is unacceptable, and I am committed to working with my colleagues in both parties to determine what actually happened that day and to develop policy solutions to ensure we never see a crisis like this again.”
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana), who served in the Louisiana National Guard and the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office, is one of the Republicans appointed to the committee.
Higgins noted that the commission would have subpoena power to get to the truth of what happened in the Butler case and to hold victims and the American people accountable.
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House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark E. Greene speaks at a press conference with other lawmakers at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
“I am honored to serve on the Bipartisan Task Force on the Assassination Attempt to Kill President Trump,” Higgins said in a statement.
“The American people demand an explanation, and we will use every tool at our disposal to uncover the full details of the assassination attempt, ensure accountability and identify security failings. I look forward to working with my bipartisan colleagues to uncover the truth.”
In addition to Kelly, two other Pennsylvania appointees were appointed to the committee: Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a Main Line Democrat and Air Force veteran, and Rep. Madeline Dean of Montgomery County.
Houlahan called his appointment a “special and solemn honor” and noted that the bill mandating the creation of the task force passed unanimously.
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Rep. Glenn Ivey, left, talks with Rep. Bennie Thompson at the Butler Farm Show on Monday, July 22, 2024, as a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers visited the site of the assassination attempt on former President Trump. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
“[That] underscore[d] “I am mandated by the people of Pennsylvania and all Americans to conduct this investigation free from political influence and divisive rhetoric. Through my work on this task force, I am committed to upholding our values of truth, civility, decency and patriotism,” she said.
“As a representative of Pennsylvania, the birthplace of our republic and American democracy, I believe the recent assassination attempt on former President Trump is a stark reminder of the fragility of our democratic institutions.”
Houlahan said the attack ran counter to the “essence” of America and that all political parties must condemn violence and recognize that political differences should not lead to this happening.
Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who led a tour of the rally site, said the Department of Homeland Security’s failure to provide protection for a former president and now a candidate for the highest office in our nation through the Secret Service was “unacceptable from the start.”
“[I]”It gets worse with each new report and effort released to impede congressional oversight by the Biden-Harris Administration,” Greene said. “Establishing this task force is an important step to address this failure and ensure that the American people get the answers they deserve.”
Greene called on Department of Homeland Security officials to cooperate with the task force’s investigation.
Republican Rep. David Joyce of Ohio, citing his 25 years of experience as a prosecutor, vowed to “uncover the facts, demand accountability and work diligently to prevent security failures like this from happening in the future.”
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Thomas Matthew Crooks photographed in front of the Butler Fairgrounds in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on the former president. (Bethel Park School District/Getty Images)
“President Trump, those injured on July 13, the family of Corey Comperatore, and the American people deserve this explanation,” Joyce said.
Another Republican, Rep. Laurel Lee of Florida, condemned the “unacceptable security failures” that day and said the Secret Service had failed to perform its “failure-free mission.”
Another Democratic congressman from Florida, Jared Moskowitz, who attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a mass shooting occurred several years ago, and serves as the school’s president, was also appointed to the task force.
“As the former director of the Florida Agency for Emergency Management, I have been involved in postmortems to learn from failures and successes in both natural and man-made disasters,” Moskowitz said.
“And as a state legislator representing Parkland, Florida, where a mass shooting occurred at my alma mater, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, leaving 17 people dead, I helped establish the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Commission to investigate the failures that day.”
“The safety and security of presidential nominees is of paramount importance,” Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., said in a statement Monday.
“It is paramount that we get to the bottom of the security failures that allowed this attempt to take place. Political violence is unacceptable and protecting those seeking to win elections is the step we must take to protect our democratic process,” Ivey said.
Some on X, formerly Twitter, criticised Johnson and Jeffries for not appointing other senior lawmakers with military experience to the task force.
Rep. Corey Mills, a Republican from Florida who has worked tirelessly to help rescue civilians in Afghanistan, said he wasn’t surprised by the removal from the list.
“It’s very unfortunate, but not surprising to anyone who knows how Washington works. I’m not a politician, I’m not a leader, I’m not a ‘yes man,'” Mills said.
“I wish the members of Chairman Johnson’s task force every success,” he continued, calling for a parallel investigation by experts and whistleblowers rather than politicians.
He also noted that Rep. Elijah Crain, a former military sniper who quickly realized the Butler Water Tower was a spot the Secret Service would likely miss, was not even considered.
“I will be speaking with other members and, although I do not have subpoena power, I will personally cover the costs of any additional staff necessary to further investigate and uncover the truth,” Mills said.
Other members of the task force include Rep. Michael Walz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas).
