By Hallie Lauer
Members of the congressional task force investigating the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump toured the grounds where the shooting took place on Monday and said they now have more questions than answers.
Nine of the 13 members of the bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives task force, which was created shortly after the July 13 shooting, walked through the Butler Farm Show grounds where a gunman opened fire on Trump as held a campaign rally.
Many of the lawmakers present said the tour was eye-opening.
“The big thing for us being here today was to actually be on the ground, get familiar with the ground and be comfortable with the questions we were going to ask because of the way it was laid out,” said Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, the task force co-chair and witness to the shooting.
“What’s impressive to me,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery, “is the proximity of everything here, particularly the position of the shooter and the proximity of the president.”
Despite police in and around the farm grounds building, shooter Thomas Crooks was able to scale an exterior wall, move into position, confront a local law enforcement officer with his rifle and fire a deadly salvo into a crowd of rally-goers.
The ability of Crooks — who police said scouted the grounds ahead of time and flew a drone over the area hours before the rally started — to position himself on an unguarded rooftop just 150 yards away from Trump has baffled security experts.
The shooting killed former firefighter Corey Comperatore and left Trump and two others wounded. Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, was killed by a bullet fired by a Secret Service agent.
“We were inches away from an American catastrophe,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla. “I look forward to getting the facts of what failed that day.”
For Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., the tour of the grounds raised questions about how communication is handled when multiple agencies are involved in an event.
“Who’s ultimately responsible? Who’s in charge?” he said. “I want to know who makes the decisions. If the Secret Service says ‘do x’ and the campaign says ‘do not do that,’ who decides and who is ultimately responsible for the outcome?”
The striking security failures at the rally have become the focus of intense criticism of the Secret Service and the local law enforcement they relied on to help guard the Republican nominee and his supporters.
The task force was approved in a resolution last month as several hearings on Capitol Hill revealed more details about the shooter and security lapses before and during the rally. Kimberly Cheatle, former head of the Secret Service, resigned after being grilled by lawmakers in a House Oversight Committee hearing.
Several agents from the Secret Service Pittsburgh field office were reportedly placed on leave last week as the investigation continues.
“It’s so important for this task force to walk these grounds, see this area and see this physical space,” said Rep Laurel Lee, R-Fla. “It has raised more questions than we came here with.”
Each of the lawmakers said they are eager to get answers “for the American people.”
They also stressed the bipartisan nature of the task force. Of the 13 members, six are Democrats and seven are Republicans. Only nine members were present Monday. U.S. Reps, Mark Green, R-Tenn., Mike Waltz, R-Fla., Clay Higgins, R-La. and Pat Fallon, R-Texas did not attend.
“The whole effort of this task force is to make sure we get all the answers to the questions we ask,” Mr. Kelly said. “Getting to the truth is a slow process and none of us are looking at it as we have to get a quick answer. We’re looking at, we have to get the right answer.”
Mr. Kelly said that his “burning question,” is how law enforcement missed signs of trouble.
“There was knowledge ahead of time that there was a person of suspicion on that roof and armed,” he said. “The key was, get the former president of the United States off the podium. Then there’s nothing that has to take place.”
Lawmakers were scheduled to talk to local law enforcement agencies after their tour of the grounds to further discuss their investigations, although Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., declined to say specifically who they would be meeting with.
Various law enforcement agencies from Butler, including the city of Butler and Butler Township, had officers at the event, as did neighboring counties like Beaver. They were also joined by state troopers.
Mr. Kelly said the group had a briefing with the FBI last week and has talked with Secret Service members.
The Crooks family has hired Pittsburgh lawyers from the Quinn Logue law firm, according to a report from the Daily Mail. The firm did not respond to attempts for comment on Monday from the Post-Gazette.
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