The American Congress says it will quickly demand briefings and start investigations into the assassination attempt that left former U.S. president Donald Trump injured at a rally on Saturday, July 13, in Pennsylvania.
“Congress will do a full investigation of the tragedy yesterday to determine where there were lapses in security and anything else that the American people need to know and deserve to know,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, said Sunday on the “TODAY” show.
“But in the meantime, we’ve got to turn the rhetoric down. We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country.”
Johnson said he has “gotten briefings from law enforcement” and asked “pointed questions” of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Saturday night.
Top Democrat leaders in Congress also condemned the shooting.
“I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former President Trump is safe. Political violence has no place in our country,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., asked Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a July 22 hearing.
House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., also demanded answers from Mayorkas in a Sunday letter.
Mark Green held a call with Secret Service director Cheatle on Sunday afternoon, according to a Homeland Security Committee GOP spokesperson, and said the majority on the panel planned to hold a member briefing on Monday.
In a separate letter to Cheatle, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz) demanded answers on the security lapse at the Trump rally, including whether the Trump campaign requested additional protection and whether those resources were denied.
Gallego, who is a military veteran, wrote that the shooting “raises grave concerns regarding the security measures or lack thereof that were taken to protect a former President of the United States and a Major Presidential Candidate.”
“I call on all those responsible for the planning, approving, and executing of this failed security plan to be held accountable and to testify before Congress immediately,” Gallego wrote in the letter, obtained first by NBC News.
Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., announced in the wake of the shooting that they would propose legislation “providing President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. with enhanced Secret Service protection.”
In a notice sent by the Senate Notification Center late Saturday in the wake of the assassination attempt, Senate offices were told that Capitol Police is “not tracking any additional threats to Members.”
“Capitol Police are coordinating to provide additional support at events related to both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions,” the notice added.
