Exclusive: The top Democrat on a newly appointed House select committee investigating the assassination attempt on former President Trump has insisted the investigation will be apolitical.
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colorado, was selected by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, to serve as the committee’s ranking member.
Crow, who began his first term in Congress in 2020, was chosen as one of seven House Democrats to prosecute President Trump’s first impeachment trial in the Senate.
But in an interview with Fox News Digital on Wednesday, he denied that his new role would expose him to criticism of how the task force is currently being run.
District Attorney Butler said local snipers were not responsible for the rooftop shooter.
Rep. Jason Crow spoke to Fox News Digital about his role on the bipartisan House task force investigating the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt on former President Trump. (Getty Images)
“I “I don’t care about that. You know, I have a reputation for being one of the most bipartisan members of Congress, because, listen, that’s the American way,” Crow said. “We’ll … have tough discussions and deliberations on things that need to be had and debated, but we’ll come together and work together when and where we need to.”
The retired Army Ranger said he was trained to serve without bias during his time in the military, which included tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I’ve served in combat and on missions overseas with Americans of all races and backgrounds — Republicans, Democrats, Independents, from the East Coast, from the West Coast — and we came together, we served, we accomplished the mission, and we intend to bring that same spirit to this task force,” Crow said.
He is one of six Democrats appointed to the task force by Governor Jeffries; seven are Republicans selected by House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, left, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are leading the task force meetings as a bipartisan effort. (Getty Images)
“We have the utmost confidence that Congressman Jason Crow and this solid, qualified and capable bipartisan team of lawmakers will act swiftly to uncover the facts, ensure accountability, and ensure this kind of failure never happens again,” Johnson and Jeffries said in a joint statement about Crow’s appointment.
Earlier, Fox News Digital was told by sources that Rep. Dan Goldman (R-New York), who served as lead Democratic counsel in President Trump’s first impeachment trial, was under consideration for a spot on the committee, though Goldman did not make the final list.
Crow told Fox News Digital that while specifics of the investigation are still being worked out between him and Chairman Mike Kelly (R-PA), he expects part of the investigation will involve the task force visiting the scene of the July 13 shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attempted assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, opened fire from a nearby rooftop during the rally, grazed Trump’s right ear, killed a former firefighter and severely wounded two other spectators before being shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
“Chairman Kelly and I have talked about it and we think it would be important if we could get support,” Crow said.
He also said “a lot of things appear to have gone wrong” on the day of the shooting, promising a “prompt investigation” and noting the group should release its report in December.
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This aerial photo taken on July 14 shows the scene where a gunman attempted to assassinate former President Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters)
Crow listed the questions he has: “Are we actually looking at that information properly? Is it being communicated to the right law enforcement agencies? Why wasn’t there a secure perimeter? Why wasn’t the rooftop secure?”
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He explained that the apparent communications outage would be a major theme of the investigation, adding: “What we’ve learned in combat overseas is that one of the hardest things to achieve is communications interoperability between different forces in different locations.”
“It’s been very difficult, but it’s also an important thing to do, because if you don’t communicate and talk about it, things will fall through the cracks.”
