House Committee on Homeland Security members tour site of Trump rally after assassination attempt

BUTLER, Pa. — Channel 11 was there as bipartisan House Committee on Homeland Security members toured the site of former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show.

They even got on the roof where authorities say Thomas Crooks tried to assassinate Trump.

“I was on the roof, on the roof the director said was very dangerous for secret service and other personnel to be on. I’m 70 years old there’s nothing unsafe about that roof,” said Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.).

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Lawmakers said there were obvious failures by the secret service and want director Kimberly Cheatle to step down.

“What happened here last week was unacceptable. The secret service has one primary mission to protect our elected officials and they failed,” said Rep Michael Guest (R-Miss.).

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The committee is investigating on what went wrong, how this could have happened, and want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

They toured the site for about an hour and afterward had a press briefing. They said this had led to more questions than answers. Right away, they said there were a number of vulnerabilities.

“Why were there not drones to be able to spot not only where the vulnerability of the building where the shooter was?” said Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.).

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“I was a former Navy Seal sniper myself and as soon I got out of the vehicle and I saw that water tower over there, I started asking hey why wasn’t one of the counter sniper teams in that water tower,” said Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.).

Lawmakers said this was poor planning, communication and decision-making to protect the former president. Channel 11 spoke with Mike Kelly who represents this area and was part of today’s tour. He’s pushing for answers too.

“If there was a belief person of suspicion, why did they ever let President Trump come up to that podium and start to speak? It doesn’t make sense to me,” said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.). “The American people have the right to know what happened and we have the responsibility to find out. This isn’t a Republican or Democrat issue. It’s an American issue.”

Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said during the tour, they noticed many access points to the roof where the shooter was and said there should have been eyes all around that building.

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