Monday’s events, which focused on the assassination attempt on former President Trump, highlighted the challenges the official House task force investigating the attack will face in keeping its investigation bipartisan and apolitical.
In their first in-person, public activities, members of the bipartisan task force visited President Trump’s July 13 rally and the Butler, Pennsylvania, agricultural fair site where the shooting occurred, and stressed the importance of carefully evaluating the facts from a neutral perspective.
“No one in this room identifies as a Republican or a Democrat. We identify as members of a task force tasked with restoring the trust, faith and confidence that the American people should have in our institution,” Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), who chairs the task force on behalf of Butler, said at a press conference after the trip.
But in Washington, D.C., a firebrand group of House Republicans, including some disappointed that they were not included on the official House task force, held a forum at the Heritage Foundation on the assassination attempt, raising questions about whether the security failures surrounding the July 13 rally were politically motivated.
It was the first major announcement of an independent investigation that Reps. Corey Mills (R-Fla.) and Eli Klain (R-Ariz.), two former military snipers who visited the rally site and tried to gather information, had pledged to pursue after not being selected to serve on the official task force.
Participants in the hearing-style forum included Blackwater founder and former Navy SEAL Erik Prince, conservative radio host and former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, and Washington-area SWAT officer Ben Shaffer, who was in attendance at the rally. In addition to Mills and Klain, Republicans Reps. Andy Biggs (Arizona), Matt Gaetz (Florida), and Chip Roy (Texas) participated in the forum, with Rep. Bob Good (Va.) in the audience.
Mills said Monday’s event “will not be the last of this independent effort.”
“This is a message to the whole of Parliament that if we don’t select people on a meritocratic basis, these independent investigations will continue to take place and some Conservative members will not be silenced,” Mills said in her opening remarks.
Klain told The Hill that while he respects the members of the official task force, who were appointed after careful coordination with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), he questions whether the task force is “politically formed” and that House committees will make decisions based on politics per se.
But it was the independent forum that pivoted to possible political explanations for the security failures that led to 20-year-old suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks opening fire on Trump from a rooftop, wounding him, killing one rally attendee and seriously injuring two more.
“For the first time in American history, it appears the Secret Service is making a decision that, while maybe not outright political, does have political overtones,” Bongino said, commenting on why the Secret Service turned down the Trump campaign’s request for additional security. He also asserted that the Secret Service is “governed” by considering diversity, equity and inclusion when making key decisions.
Roy repeatedly questioned whether the various security failures were the result of “simple incompetence.”
The forum did not reveal any significant new facts about the security surrounding the shooting, but it did highlight security shortcomings at the scene.
Ben Shaffer, who was in a counter-sniper role on the day of the event, said Crooks was never in his area or line of sight, and that communication issues and a lack of drone coverage had a “severe” impact on security at the event and venue.
Klain said the goal of the independent investigation is to “act as quickly as possible, because the American people do not want to see this case fade from memory.”
The official task force has a completely different outlook.
“It’s a process that takes time to get to the truth, and for us, no one is looking at it with the mindset that they have to get the answer right away. They’re looking at it with the mindset that they have to get the right answer,” Kelly said.
And as the congressional investigation moves forward, a formal select committee will have sole power to issue subpoenas in the House of Representatives.
During the tour in Butler, Pennsylvania, several task force members commented that being there gave them a better understanding of how close the building from which the shooter opened fire was to the rally.
“It reminds me, frankly, of how egregious it was that the director of the Secret Service wasn’t here to find out what this is like,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said, referring to admissions made by former Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle during a contentious House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing in July. Cheatle resigned the next day.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), the task force’s ranking member, recalled his experience as an Army Ranger, where he was taught to secure or monitor high ground.
“I certainly became aware today that there were numerous visibility areas that day that were not maintained, that were not monitored or that appeared to not be maintained,” Crow said at a news conference.
There may be overlap between independent efforts and task forces.
Schafer told The Hill that he has been in contact with the official committee but chose to speak before the independent committee out of concern that “a lack of information could cause more problems than providing facts and information.”
