Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pennsylvania) said Sunday it is critical that the bipartisan special committee investigating the assassination attempt against former President Trump works quickly and in a bipartisan manner.
“It's really important that this group works quickly in a bipartisan way to understand what happened, make sure that this never happens again, and in my conversation with Senator Rubio, make sure that we restore the trust and confidence of the American people in our institutions, in law enforcement and in Congress,” Houlahan told CBS News' “Face the Nation,” referring to an earlier interview with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Houlahan was one of six Democrats and seven Republicans appointed to a bipartisan task force following the assassination attempt at a rally for President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In a recent interview, Houlahan said the task force is also investigating the recent assassination attempt on President Trump, when Trump was playing a round of golf at a course in West Palm Beach, Florida, when a Secret Service agent saw a man with a rifle looming on the perimeter of the course and fired shots at Trump.
The man fled before firing the shots and was arrested a short time later and charged with two federal gun offenses, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and using a weapon with an obliterated serial number.
Houlahan said the special investigation unit was “getting the answers we were looking for” as it continued to investigate the incident.
“We've asked quite a few questions of both the Secret Service and local police, and I think we're pretty much getting the answers we need,” Houlahan said.
“If for some reason that doesn't happen, the good thing about this group is we have subpoena power and we can make sure we get answers,” she added.
Houlahan pointed to “significant gaps” in Secret Service operations and communications, as outlined in an internal investigation released Friday, but said he believes current leadership is focused on fixing the problems.
“These are very serious issues and they've been brought up in our conversations and in the briefings that we've received. And there were big gaps, as you said, in terms of texting information back and forth as opposed to using radios. There were big gaps in terms of people not even knowing that there were two command centers. And there were also some gaps, frankly, in terms of kind of a culture and a relatively lax way in which people communicate with each other. All of this needs to be fixed,” she said of the report's findings, when asked if she trusted the leadership.
“I believe the organization is very focused on all the things they can and should do to fix themselves,” Houlahan continued, “and I think Congress is also looking at whether they have the resources to make those fixes.”
