House task force has more questions after examining site of Trump assassination attempt

BUTLER COUNTY, Pa. — House task force members investigating the assassination attempt on Donald Trump said after visiting the rally site Monday that they were struck by how close the shooter was to the former president.

The lawmakers said they left the site with more questions than answers.

The task force members visited the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds, where Mr. Trump held a campaign rally on July 13. They also visited the neighboring AGR International Inc. complex, where 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to climb onto the roof of a building a little more than a football field’s distance from where Mr. Trump was speaking and fired shots at the Republican presidential nominee, hitting him in the ear.

“What’s impressive to me is the proximity of everything here, particularly the position of the shooter and the position of the [former] president,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean, Pennsylvania Democrat.

Other task force members who addressed the press said there was no substitute for walking the grounds and getting a sense of the physical space.

“For many of us, it raises more questions than we came here with today because we can see it’s not a large place. We can get a sense of the area and just how close these buildings were to that stage where President Trump stood that day,” said Rep. Laurel Lee, Florida Republican. “So for all of us having an opportunity to see and to walk around and experience this was a really critical step in our investigative process.”

Rep. Jason Crow, Colorado Democrat and ranking member of the task force, cited his experience as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fundamental principles he learned, such as the importance of securing the high ground.

“So I definitely took note today that there were a lot of lines of sight that appear to have been unsecured that day, that didn’t have eyes on or that weren’t secured,” he said. He added that it poses “a lot more questions than answers.”

The would-be assassin, who was shot dead by Secret Service countersnipers, managed to fire a burst of bullets that killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore and wounded two others in the crowd.

Rep. Mike Kelly, the Pennsylvania Republican who represents the area and is chairing the task force, told The Washington Times in an interview earlier Monday that when the Trump campaign’s advance team called to inform him about a rally at the Butler Farm Show site, he recommended against it.

“This venue is much too small. It’s got a two-lane highway. Half of it’s torn up right now. Entry and exit are going to be very difficult. It’s going to be a real problem,” Mr. Kelly said, recalling what he told Mr. Trump’s team. “They said, ‘Well, we’ve made a decision.’”

Mr. Kelly, who has lived in Butler his entire life, said he urged Mr. Trump’s team to consider holding the rally at the Butler airport, where he held an event during his presidency, or a similar but much larger site, aptly named the Big Butler Fairgrounds. His suggestions were rebuffed.

“Knowing and having been to many, many Trump events, this one was not the place to stage it,” he said. “I had bad feelings about it from the beginning.”

Nine of the House task force’s 13 members, all six Democrats and three Republicans, visited the site on Monday. They also met with members of local law enforcement.

Some task force members saw the site on July 22 as part of a House Homeland Security Committee visit before the task force was impaneled. Committee Chairman Mark Green, Tennessee Republican, did not visit Monday. Neither did Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican who visited the site and conducted other investigative work in Butler County early this month.

Rep. Lou Correa, who returned Monday after a previous visit with the Homeland Security Committee, said he still gets questions from local officials about where the buck stops.

“Who’s ultimately responsible for what happened here?” he said.

Federal and local law enforcement have engaged in a public relations war of blame, although the Secret Service has begun to take more responsibility for the failure because the agency was ultimately in charge of security that day.

The site visit on Monday was the first meeting of the task force members in person. The House voted to establish the task force on July 24 and adjourned later that week for a monthlong recess.

Last week, the lawmakers on the task force held a virtual briefing with the FBI, which is conducting the criminal investigation into the assassination attempt. The task force’s staff has received a briefing from the Secret Service and begun conducting witness interviews. Higgins and other members also have conducted interviews.

Ms. Lee said the task force has also interviewed or heard from state and local law enforcement members who helped provide security for the rally and people who attended.

“Their observations, what they saw and heard, and things that, in some cases, they recorded on their phones, are all part of developing the full, fat picture of what happened that day,” she said.

Mr. Crow promised that the task force investigation would be “thorough and robust.”

“What we hope to do here today is to help restore the confidence of the American people that their elected officials and their candidates are secure,” he said. “And we know there’s a lot of Americans sitting at home that don’t have that confidence.”

The task force is charged with producing a report of its findings by Dec. 13 and issuing recommendations for any necessary legislative reforms.

Mr. Kelly acknowledged that his panel’s work may not be conducted at the same speed as other federal investigations but said he is more concerned about accuracy.

“Getting to the truth is a slow process,” he said. “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.”