(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep Mark Green, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, wants answers about the federal government's plans to secure the perimeter of the campaign event in Pennsylvania where a shooter attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
Green, R-Tenn., sent a letter Sunday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas seeking details of the security plan, "including areas such as the building from which the shooter attempted the assassination on President Trump, communications between or among personnel at the Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Office of the President related to any potential increase or addition of protective resources to President Trump’s security detail;" and materials used to brief President Joe Biden about the assassination attempt.
“The seriousness of this security failure and chilling moment in our nation’s history cannot be understated," Green wrote. "No assassination attempt has come so close to taking the life of a president or presidential candidate since President Reagan was shot in 1981."
An eyewitness to the shooting told the British Broadcasting Corporation that he and others who attended the rally spotted the shooter – identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania – on the nearby building rooftop minutes before he opened fire, killing one rally attendee, seriously wounding another and striking Trump in his right ear.
The eyewitness, who BBC identified as Greg Smith, said he notified law enforcement of the gunman on the roof before the shooting took place.
"I'm thinking to myself, 'Why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage'... the next thing you know, five shots ring out," BBC reported.
Green said that had the bullet’s trajectory "been slightly different, the assassination attempt on President Trump might have succeeded."
"As the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) investigates, the Committee on Homeland Security (Committee) is dedicated to conducting rigorous oversight to ensure that the American people receive answers and presidential candidates receive proper and adequate protection," Green added.
Green said that, according to the Secret Service, the shooter “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue,” raising concerns about how the shooter 'was able to access a rooftop within range and direct line of sight of where President Trump was speaking."
Green also alleged in the letter that some media reports indicate that DHS “'rebuffed' multiple requests from President Trump’s security detail to increase protective resources in the weeks preceding this event.”
The demands to Mayorkas come after U.S. House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said Saturday night that he wanted the U.S. Secret Service director to appear for a hearing before Congress to testify about the security plans for the campaign event.
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