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Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Tuesday morning he would be teaming up with House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to start a task force looking into the assassination attempt against President Donald Trump.
In a statement posted to X, Johnson revealed the House Task Force, which is set to be made up of seven Republican lawmakers and six Democrats. The group will be investigating the “security failures” of the attempted assassination on July 13 at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally, according to Johnson.
“The task force will be empowered with subpoena authority and will move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and make certain such failures never happen again,” Johnson wrote.
The House Speaker’s announcement comes after reports of various security lapses by the U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement surfaced.
Shortly after taking the stage at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, multiple shots were fired at Trump and the crowd by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. While the investigation is still ongoing, Crooks had reportedly been spotted on multiple occasions prior to the attack by security.
Law enforcement officials briefed on the matter told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that Crooks was able to not only fly a drone over the rally site on a programmed flight path, but he might have been able to fly it more than once in order to conduct research and scope the perimeter, the outlet reported.
Roughly 30 minutes before the attack, Crooks was then allegedly spotted by local law enforcement, an anonymous law enforcement source told WPXI. Additional reports indicate a law enforcement officer had been hoisted up to the rooftop where Crooks was situated on, however, he dropped back down after the 20-year-old allegedly pivoted his weapon in the officer’s direction, according to The Associated Press.
Since the attack and lack of answers to the security lapses, Republican lawmakers have called for U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to step down. While Cheatle had originally remained firm in staying within her position, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed Tuesday that she had submitted her resignation to the agency, according to Fox News.
“I am grateful to Kimberly Cheatle for her leadership as the Director of the United States Secret Service and for her lifelong devotion to our country,” Mayorkas said.
“Daily, she risked her life to protect others, serving on the frontlines and securing events for every president since President Clinton,” Mayorkas said. “She supervised protection for Vice President Cheney, led the Secret Service’s training center, supervised the protection of Vice President Biden, oversaw the agency’s entire protective mission during the administration of President Trump, and more.”