OPINION:
Americans deserve answers about what happened at former President Donald Trump’s rally last Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania. It’s unlikely we will get them if the FBI is the only organization investigating. The administration is already in cover-up mode.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee had to issue a subpoena to compel Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to attend the hearing scheduled for Monday. In the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt, Ms. Cheatle vowed transparency and full cooperation with Congress.
That changed when her boss, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, ordered her to cancel the appearance. “In addition, since DHS’s intervention, there have been no meaningful updates or information shared with the Committee,” wrote the panel’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Subcommittee on Investigations, did receive a briefing from the Secret Service, which he described as “unbelievably uninformative.”
Ms. Cheatle’s initial explanations bordered on the bizarre — particularly her comment that Secret Service agents are incapable of positioning themselves on a mildly sloped roof. She also attempted to blame local law enforcement for leaving the sniper’s vantage unguarded.
“That’s absolutely not correct,” Butler Township Commissioner Edward Natali told Fox News. Mr. Natali says he has a written operational plan that states the town’s responsibilities were limited to directing traffic. Local police jumped into action only to investigate the suspicious man they had reported to the Secret Service nearly an hour earlier.
Stonewalling on a matter of this importance is unacceptable. While Mr. Trump survived the attempt on his life, that came down to sheer luck and perhaps a bit of assistance from above. The review of events ought to be treated with the same gravity as if it had been the successful political assassination it nearly was.
An honest accounting of the security shortcomings will identify the reforms needed to prevent the next copycat from succeeding. The consequences are dire whether the target is a Republican or Democrat, so there’s no reason to view events through a partisan lens. The administration appears to think otherwise.
We’ve seen it before. In March, a federal judge had to order the FBI to hand over the writings of the deranged attacker who killed six students and staff last year at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. The bureau concealed the material from the public because it revealed motivations contrary to the administration’s messaging on transgenderism.
There’s reason to suspect the G-men are trying to shape the narrative here as well. Within a day, the FBI proclaimed, “the shooter acted alone,” before it had gained access to his phone messages — a rather odd thing to do if the idea is to stick to the facts.
Even some Democrats are scratching their heads. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, Florida Democrat, called on Ms. Cheatle to explain herself and suggested she be fired if she doesn’t appear at Monday’s hearing. That’s encouraging.
As long as lawmakers are willing to set aside the usual grandstanding and squabbling, there’s a chance they can tease out the answers the public deserves — particularly by encouraging whistleblowers to come forward with what they know.
The only thing that matters is finding the changes needed to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
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