WASHINGTON – As the nation reels from the Attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump and the Secret Service is coming under intense scrutiny. US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said on Monday: “We are in an elevated and very dynamic threat situation.”
The former president and official Republican presidential candidate for 2024 survived a shooting at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday that left one person dead and two others injured.
“Both President Biden and former President Trump are the subject of constant threats,” Mayorkas said during a White House press conference defending the Secret Service’s performance. Members of Congress are organizing hearings to investigate whether there were any security lapses.
“The United States Secret Service, we, including the FBI and our other partners across the federal government, are taking the threats very seriously and adjusting security measures as needed,” Mayorkas said. He added that “maintaining the security of the president, the former president and their campaign events is one of our top priorities.”
Mayorkas said that in featherlight of the shooting, Biden had ordered Secret Service protection for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate.
The secretary also said, “Both before and after the events of this past weekend, the Secret Service has increased protection for former President Trump due to the evolving nature of the threats to the former President and his impending transition from presumptive nominee to candidate.”
Trump is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the Republican National Conventionwhere he was officially nominated as the Republican presidential candidate on Monday along with his newly elected running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance.
Mayorkas also reiterated Biden’s promise on Sunday to launch an independent investigation, which he said would “examine the actions of the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies before, during, and after the shooting to determine the immediate and longer-term corrective actions needed to ensure the mission of protecting leaders is accomplished as effectively as possible.”
After the shooting, Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro identified the man killed as Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief. Shapiro said Comperatore “died a hero” and “rushed toward his family to protect them” the night of the shooting.
The FBI is continuing its criminal investigation into the incident and has identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks was killed at the scene.
Mayorkas expressed his support for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
“I have 100% confidence in the Director of the United States Secret Service. I have 100% confidence in the United States Secret Service and what you saw on stage on Saturday, people putting their own lives on the line to protect others, is exactly what the American public should see every day. That’s what I actually do,” he said.
When asked by CNN if this was a security failure, Mayorkas replied: “When I say something like this cannot happen, we are talking about a failure.”
Congressional investigations are increasing
Meanwhile, lawmakers from both parties have called for an investigation into the attempted assassination of Trump.
The Secret Service will brief members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Tuesday.
The committee will also hold a hearing early next week, when Congress returns from its week-long recess, at which Cheatle will testify.
“We are grateful to the brave Secret Service agents who acted quickly to protect President Trump after shots were fired and to the American patriots who tried to help the victims. However, questions remain about how a rooftop near President Trump could remain unsecured,” Rep. James Comer, chairman of the committee, said in a statement Monday.
“The American people are demanding answers from Director Kimberly Cheatle about these security vulnerabilities and how we can prevent this from happening again,” said Comer, a Kentucky Republican.
In a statement Monday, Cheatle said the Secret Service recognizes the “importance of the independent review announced by President Biden yesterday and will participate fully in it.”
“We will also work with the appropriate congressional committees on any oversight actions,” she said.
Cheatle also noted that the “Secret Service is working with all federal, state and local agencies involved to understand what happened, how it happened and how we can prevent an incident like this from ever happening again.”
Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Mark Green wrote a letter on Sunday Mayorkas requested several documents and said, “The severity of this security failure and this terrifying moment in our nation’s history cannot be understated.”
“Not since President Reagan was shot in 1981 has an assassination attempt come so close to costing a president or presidential candidate’s life,” said Green, a Tennessee Republican.
Senators also plan investigations
The Senate is also launching more intensive investigations into the attempted assassination.
Michigan Senator Gary Peters and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul – the respective chair and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee – said Monday that the committee Initiation of a bipartisan investigation and plans to hold a hearing soon to investigate the “security failures” that led to the attempted assassination of Trump.
The two sent a letter to Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray requesting a briefing of committee members and requesting information from the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service and the FBI. They also requested that either Mayorkas, Wray or an “appropriate representative” appear at a committee hearing on the matter by August 1.
“There is no place for political violence in our country, and Saturday’s shocking attack should never have happened,” Peters said in a statement Monday.
“Our committee is focused on obtaining all the facts about the security failures that allowed the attacker to commit this heinous act of violence that threatened the life of former President Trump, killed at least one person in the crowd, and injured several others,” he said.
In addition, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, led his Republican colleagues on the panel on Monday in called on Chairman Dick Durbin “to hold a hearing on the circumstances that led to this tragedy.”
Graham and nine of his fellow Republicans also asked the Illinois Democrat to invite Cheatle, Mayorkas and Wray to testify before the committee.
