A group of Congressmen from the House Homeland Security Committee visited the Butler County site of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Monday — part of their investigation into what went wrong last weekend, and who should be held accountable.
While their colleagues on the Oversight Committee grilled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle in a Washington hearing, 12 congressmen walked the grounds of the Butler County Farm Show, talked to local officials and even got on the roof of the building where the man identified by investigators as the shooter, Thomas Crooks, turned his rifle on the former president.
The visit raised several troubling questions about the handling of security at the rally, committee members said.
Republicans on the committee called for Cheatle’s immediate resignation even before the tour began, and reiterated the demand afterward.
“She needs to step down,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee. “I will tell you that [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas has the opportunity to take her out of that position if she chooses not to.”
Democrats on the committee suggested that they, too, would support Cheatle’s ouster if the investigation points to failures at the Secret Service.
“We share the sentiment that if … it is the Secret Service who failed the job, the person at the top is the one who has to pay the price,” said the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.
The Congressmen claimed that the Secret Service didn’t allow local law enforcement officials to work inside its command center during the rally, as is typical. “Normally they put a person from the locals in the Secret Service area,” Green said. “Today, the locals shared with us that they were not allowed to have anybody in there. So that makes you want to dig a little further.”
Arizona Rep. Eli Crane, a former Navy Seal sniper, asked why the Secret Service didn’t position a sniper on a nearby water tower, which would have provided a view over the whole Farm Show area.
“If any of our counter-sniper teams were up on that water tower, this individual wouldn't have made it five feet,” he said.
Some Congressmen also criticized statements from the Secret Service that the roof of the building Crooks fired from was too steep for snipers. Florida Rep. Carlos Gimenez said he was able to climb the roof Monday with ease.
“I'm 70 years old,” he said. “There's nothing unsafe about that roof.”
Several Democrats on the committee raised questions about why the event was allowed to take place in such a vulnerable location to begin with. “I looked at all of the roofs that were around, and my count was around 12 or so,” said Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey. “And I just thought, ‘Maybe this isn't the best place to have done this.’”
Thompson said the committee needed to look into who has the final say when determining site locations: the campaign or the Secret Service. “My understanding at this point is [local officials] were told that we were coming to this location and that's it,” Thompson said.
Five days’ warning
Local officials raised additional concerns, including why they hadn’t been notified about the event sooner. And they said that there had been a number of people working on the site the night before the rally that had not been vetted by the Secret Service.
Angela Fleeger, a township supervisor of Connoquenessing, said she had been seeking information about the plans for days, until she was finally notified it was set to take place in less than a week.
“There was a lot of concern that the timing of this was really unacceptable,” Fleeger said. “It was five days for an event of this magnitude.”
The Farm Show grounds where the event was held straddle the border of Butler and Connoquenessing townships, and one of the main roads to the Farm Show runs through Connoquenessing. Fleeger said she was worried about traffic and road safety. And she said it was a challenge to meet the EMS needs, as more than 250 people required medical attention during the 90-degree heat. Eight or nine had to be sent to the hospital, she said, and while volunteer firefighters were able to treat them all, it was busy.
Fleeger said the site visit Monday was her first opportunity to share concerns about security at the rally to anyone. She said she had volunteered to help set up the night before, but neither she nor the other volunteers had been vetted by the Secret Service.
“I was very alarmed and concerned about that,” she said.
Butler Township Commissioner Sam Zurzolo said Meridian Road should have been closed because so many buildings could be accessed from it.
Zurzolo was at the rally on July 13 sitting near one of the people who was hit by a bullet. He tried to help coordinate people to reach safety after the shooting. He said he has struggled in the days since. Normally he’s very talkative, he said, but for three days after the event, he couldn’t even sleep at night.
“I didn’t want to be around nobody,” he said. “I just wanted to be by myself.”
