Top officials within President Joe Biden’s administration are being asked to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee on the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) sent requests to FBI Director Christopher Wray, United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, asking them to testify at an oversight hearing on July 23.
“The American people want answers on what happened Saturday in Pennsylvania. Secretary Mayorkas and Director Cheatle are responsible for the department and the agency charged with securing our homeland and protecting our nation’s chief executives and candidates,” Green said in a statement, “while Director Wray leads the agency with the vital responsibility of investigating this attempted assassination.”
The statement further said:
C-SPANIt is imperative that we partner to understand what went wrong, and how Congress can work with the departments and agencies to ensure this never happens again. Successful oversight requires Congress to work together with these officials as they testify publicly before the House Committee on Homeland Security. The American people, and the individuals and families who receive protective services, deserve nothing less. [Emphasis added]
The hearing will focus on the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump while he spoke at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that saw a bullet hit the former president’s ear. Meanwhile, 50-year-old retired fire chief Corey Comperatore was killed while shielding his family from the gunfire.
David Dutch, 57 years old, and James Copenhaver, 74 years old, were also injured in the assassination attempt and are now in stable condition.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, is accused of carrying out the assassination attempt. He was shot and killed by the Secret Service shortly after he allegedly fired the shots at Trump and rallygoers.
The FBI, Secret Service, and DHS have come under fire as more has been revealed about how Crooks was able to seemingly get atop a roof with a rifle close by to where Trump was speaking — even as onlookers reported him to local authorities.
Also this week, Green sent a letter to Mayorkas requesting he produce all documents related to the security plan to secure the perimeter of the Trump rally where the assassination attempt occurred, as well as the briefing materials used to inform Biden about the assassination attempt.
“The seriousness of this security failure and chilling moment in our nation’s history cannot be understated,” Green wrote to Mayorkas. “No assassination attempt has come so close to taking the life of a president or presidential candidate since President Reagan was shot in 1981. Had the bullet’s trajectory been slightly different, the assassination attempt on President Trump might have succeeded.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
