'Completely unacceptable': Committee tours site of Trump assassination attempt

A bipartisan congressional delegation got a firsthand look Monday at the place where a 20-year-old nursing home aide came within a hairsbreadth of killing Donald Trump.

After climbing the same Butler County roof from which Thomas Crooks fired shots from an AR-15 rifle, members of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security were incredulous.

How, they wondered, did the Secret Service fail to take what seemed to them an obvious precaution: secure the warehouse roof and its direct line of sight to where the former president was speaking to thousands of supporters roughy 150 yards away?

Rep. Michael Guest, a Republican from Mississippi, classified it as an utter failure by the agency.

“What happened here last week was unacceptable,” Guest said. “This was a failure in planning, a failure in execution, a failure in leadership.”

As Guest and his colleagues poked around rural Butler County, in Washington, D.C., their fellow lawmakers were grilling Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle over the agency’s failures at the July 13 rally.

The assassination attempt, which is the subject of multiple inquiries, has led to calls for Cheatle to resign and raised persistent questions from Republicans and Democrats alike about why a critical group of warehouses was left outside a security perimeter.

It was there that Crooks, an enigmatic Bethel Park resident and high school graduate, managed to evade law enforcement, scale a low building and open fire from a rooftop perch.

Trump, who officially became the Republican nominee for president days after the shooting, said a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear.

Corey Comperatore, 50, of Buffalo Township was killed while shielding his family. Two other spectators — David Dutch, 57, of Plum and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon — suffered serious injuries.

Cheatle told Congress Monday that her agents were alerted to a suspicious person several times before the shooting. The Associated Press reported that she also disclosed that the roof where Crooks was had been flagged as a potential trouble spot days before the rally.

Several members of the group touring the Butler Farm Show grounds said they quickly noticed that unsecured rooftops would pose a potential threat to Trump.

Some suggested that the Secret Service could have mitigated that risk by planting a countersniper team on a nearby water tower where they could monitor surrounding buildings.

Cheatle has said her agency didn’t want to post a countersniper on the warehouse roof because its slope made it too dangerous.

But Rep. Carlos Gimenez, a Florida Republican, said if he could scale the roof at age 70, the Secret Service should have been able to position people there, too.

The gaps in security, he said, were “completely unacceptable.”

“Just looking at the site, immediately there are things that just hit you. The fact those things weren’t covered is just unacceptable, completely unacceptable,” Gimenez said.

Giminez was one of several Republicans on the committee to call for Cheatle’s resignation. He said he placed the blame squarely on the Secret Service.

The hourlong site visit did little to provide clarity for lawmakers seeking to understand how the agency bungled security coverage.

“It probably created more questions than answers today,” Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., the committee chair, told reporters.

Green compared his committee’s visit to a military “after-action report.”

After their tour, legislators said many of their questions remain unanswered. Among them: Why did communication between local law enforcement and the Secret Service break down? How was the rooftop where Crooks positioned himself left unsecured?

Why were no countersnipers positioned on a nearby water tower with clear sight of much of the grounds? Why did the former president host an event at a site that many said seemed difficult to secure, surrounded by a plethora of rooftops where a sniper could shoot at Trump?

“We’re going to get to the truth because the American people deserve it,” Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, a Republican, said.

Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, a committee member who was sitting about 50 feet from Trump when the gunfire began, said the public has a right to know what happened, and officials have a responsibility to find out.

Committee members said Trump’s team had requested additional support and been denied.

They also said communication between the Secret Service and local police departments was lacking.

Local law enforcement agencies were not permitted to enter the command center the Secret Service had set up, Green said, though that’s standard practice. He said there was “very limited” communication between the local law enforcement manning the perimeter and the Secret Service agents who were inside the event.

“That makes you want to dig a little further,” Green said.

Several members questioned why the location was chosen and whether the Secret Service should have told Trump’s campaign to find a new venue.

Trump’s campaign reached out to local officials about holding a rally at Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport but had to find another venue after learning an event was already scheduled there for July 13, according to the Butler Eagle, which cited the Butler County Airport Authority’s chairman.

“I think there’s a lot of issues here that probably strongly suggest (they) never should’ve had the event here to start with,” Maryland Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey said.

Officials pointed to the many rooftops that were seemingly not secured, as well as the fact the access road where Crooks parked his car remained open so close to the rally.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said he and other Democrats on the committee would join their Republican counterparts in calling for Cheatle’s resignation if the facts show the Secret Service was at fault. Currently, he said, they’re in the “fact-finding” phase and awaiting more information.

“If the facts point to this person, we will not hesitate at all to ask for her (resignation),” he said, adding it was a “problem” that she had not yet toured the grounds herself.

Green sent a subpoena to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding information regarding Secret Service planning for the event.

Green invited Cheatle, Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray to testify in a hearing Tuesday examining the circumstances around the assassination attempt.

Related:

• Bethel Park, Butler Township communities grapple with aftermath of Trump rally shooting

• New footage shows suspect on roof before shooting at Trump rally

• What we know: Secret Service director calls Trump rally shooting 'unacceptable'

• Trump survives assassination attempt in Butler; 2 dead, including suspected shooter from Bethel Park

• Community honors, says farewell to Corey Comperatore

• Medical conditions upgraded for men wounded at Trump rally