U.S. House of Representatives panel on Trump assassination attempt noted,

Members of a U.S. House task force investigating the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump blamed the U.S. Secret Service on Thursday for poor planning and a breakdown in communication and coordination with local law enforcement.

Republicans and Democrats on the House Task Force on the Assassination of Donald J. Trump praised the work of local law enforcement agencies during the first public hearing in which representatives from local law enforcement agencies testified.

Lawmakers said a preliminary investigation showed the Secret Service was responsible for a lack of planning, information sharing and decision-making.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, attempted assassin, Rally in Butler, Pa., July 13 Task force chairman Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican, said the security flaw was discovered during a reconnaissance of the site in the days leading up to the Trump rally.

Kelly added that the entire incident might have been avoided had those weaknesses not been obvious to the 20-year-old gunman.

But he said the shooting that injured Trump’s ear and killed a rallygoer was caused by more than one malfunction.

“Crooks didn’t make a single mistake to outwit one of our nation’s most elite” security agencies, Kelly said. “There were safety failures on multiple fronts.”

Kelly said the Secret Service was the lead agency in any incident where someone protected by the agency was present, but failed to adequately plan and was not decisive on key issues. He added that the agency did not manage access to sites near the rally and did not communicate effectively with state and local partners.

Testimonials from local agencies

Local officials told the panel they felt they were well-positioned to assist in Secret Service protection.

Butler County Emergency Services Commander Edward Lenz said the Secret Service has requested help from counter-assault teams, sniper teams and quick-reaction units, and local agencies believe they are ready for those missions.

“Obviously, there are other things that might need to be covered,” he said. “But they never asked us to do this, they never assigned us a task like this. So, given what specifically they asked us to do, we were certainly prepared.

He added that the sniper team was not given specific instructions to carry out the mission.

Patrolman Drew Blasco of the Butler Township Police Department said local police performed their duties as required.

“Based on the information we have, I believe we did the best we could,” Blasco said.

No unified command

The top Democrat on the task force, Colorado’s Jason Crow, a military veteran, highlighted the communication failures.

“Clear lines of communication are critical,” he said in his opening remarks. “The Secret Service has to do better.”

Later, when interviewing witnesses, Crow said he was surprised to learn that the Secret Service had not established a unified command center for the Butler rally.

Former Secret Service agent Patrick Sullivan, who testified in his personal capacity, said this was unusual for a Secret Service operation.

Typically, Sullivan said, a central command post is set up by the Secret Service, state and local agencies and any other assisting law enforcement.

“This is very unusual behavior on this site,” he said.

A unified command center could help forward messages from different teams, including alerting agents closest to the president or presidential candidates of suspicious individuals.

Pennsylvania Democrat Kris Hoolahan noted that communications between the Secret Service and local authorities are disrupted because they are not on the same radio frequency.

“So we’re counting against the clock here, and the Secret Service and state police can’t directly hear what local law enforcement is actually seeing because they don’t have interoperability with local law enforcement frequencies and I don’t own these radios,” she said.

She called for reforms that would require different agencies to communicate with each other.

slip through the cracks

Kelly said Crooks was spotted multiple times throughout the day and was deemed a suspicious person by local police.

Kelly said Crooks was operating in an unsafe area and “information about him was delayed and limited.”

Sullivan told Ohio Republican David Joyce that authorities could use a variety of methods to secure neighboring sites, suggesting the most effective method may be to have police officers there.

Lenz said local police spotted Crooks, deemed him suspicious and passed the information to Pennsylvania State Police and the Secret Service.

But Kelly said the message didn’t reach the Secret Service in time, causing Trump to step down before the shooting began.

“The Secret Service couldn’t process the information fast enough to remove the former president from the stage,” Kelly added.

The chairman wanted to know why Trump was allowed to take the stage after Crooks was reported to him multiple times.

“I’ve always wondered when someone said, ‘We’re not sure this area is safe,'” Kelly said.

first hearing

After a two-month investigation, Thursday’s meeting marked the first public hearing for the task force, which was established by a unanimous House vote after the Butler shooting.

The Secret Service bore the brunt of the shooting.

Then-director Kimberly CheatlerDesigned under pressure days after the assassination attempt.

acting director ronaldro said last week The incident was a “failure for the U.S. Secret Service” and promised it would trigger a “paradigm shift” in how the agency operates.

The importance of Secret Service protection and the task force’s mission was underscored this month when a man hiding in bushes at Trump’s Florida golf club was arrested and arrested. charged With another assassination attempt.

Members of both parties on the panel on Thursday condemned the targeting of political candidates.

“Political violence has no place in our democracy,” Crowe said.

trump card say this week He will return to Butler on October 5 “to finish our presentation.”