The task force charged with the assassination of Donald Trump is leaving Butler, Pennsylvania, with more questions than answers after visiting the scene where the former president was shot dead last month.
Several members of the bipartisan group told DailyMail.com they were shocked by the sheer proximity of the building where Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was seated to the stage where Trump was scheduled to speak on July 13.
They stumbled to the roof of the AGR building, where Crooks opened fire just a few hundred feet away from the former president, shooting Trump in his right ear.
The lawmakers walked around the meeting site for a while to “get a sense of the physical space” and “where this security issue was happening,” as Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) explained.
“And I can tell you that for many of us it raises more questions than the questions we came here with today, because we see that it is not a large area,” she noted.
“We can get a sense of the area and how close these buildings were to the podium where President Trump stood that day. So for all of us, it was a critical step in our research process to have the opportunity to see this, walk around this, and experience this.”
Mike Waltz, chairman of the Assassination Task Force, told DailyMail.com that he wishes his colleagues in Congress would ‘wait until we finally know what really happened, rather than end it too early’
Rep. Jason Crowe (D-Colo.), who served as an Army Ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan, noted that many “sight lines appeared to be unsecured” that day.
‘Certainly on this point, [I have] “Many more questions than answers,” he continued.
Chairman Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) even announced that it was too early to completely rule out “criminal negligence,” a move that could suggest that those responsible for the former president’s near-death and the murder of retired firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was attending the rally, could face criminal charges.
He also calls on his colleagues in Congress to step aside and allow the committee to complete its investigation before releasing more information about the attempted assassination of the former president by Thomas Matthew Crooks.
The Chairman fears that in an attempt to provide quick answers, mistakes are being made and incorrect information is being released to the public.
Some members of Congress are furious that they were not selected for the 13-member panel and are now trying to get answers on their own.
Five Republicans who believe they should be part of the task force, including former sniper Cory Mills and Republican stalwart Matt Gaetz, both of whom represent Florida, showed up at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation on Monday, just hours before the bipartisan group made its runoff from the meeting location in Butler.
Chairman Kelly told DailyMail.com: ‘I would love it if they would wait until we finally know what actually happened, rather than ending it too early.’
Kelly was at the meeting where the former president was shot in the ear by the now-deceased 20-year-old. Kelly is now leading the effort to get to the bottom of the security failures that led to the attack.
The Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump was created after Congress unanimously voted to create a special group to investigate the events of that day.
The bipartisan panel members were selected by House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and are led by Chairman Kelly and Ranking Member Crowe.
The members are Republican Reps. Mark Green (Tenn.), David Joyce (Ohio), Laurel Lee (Fla.), Mike Waltz (Fla.), Clay Higgins (La.) and Pat Fallon (Texas). And the Democrats are Reps. J. Luis Correa (Calif.), Madeleine Dean (Pennsylvania), Chrissy Houlahan (Pennsylvania), Glenn Ivey (Md.) and Jared Moskowitz (Fla.).
Lawmakers on the panel visited the site of the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Monday as they try to determine the cause of the security lapses that led to the shooting.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, pictured at the Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13 before he opened fire on the crowd and the former president and was shot dead by the Secret Service
Meanwhile, a group of five Republicans held a hearing at the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC, where they planned to present their own findings regarding the assassination.
The lawmakers hosting the event are Republican Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Cory Mills (Fla.) and Chip Roy (Texas).
One of the congressmen’s guests was former SWAT regional officer Ben Shaffer, a sniper who was working during the meeting in Butler.
He confirmed earlier revelations that local police had offered encrypted radios to the Secret Service, but the service refused to accept them.
Five members of Congress angry that they were not selected for the task force held a hearing at the Heritage Foundation on Monday seeking answers about the assassination attempt.
Trump was shot in the side of his ear. One rallygoer was killed and two others were seriously wounded. Several Secret Service agents have been suspended during the investigation into the attempted assassination, according to reports
Shaffer also claims that knowing that Crooks was using a rangefinder would have elevated him from a “person of interest” to someone “who would have been detained by officers in some way for investigation.”
Rep. Mills, a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division, said at Monday’s event in Butler that this “will not be the last” of its kind.
“This is a message to the entire Congress: If we are not selecting people based on meritocracy, we will continue to have independent investigations,” he added.
Asked whether his colleagues were undermining the task force’s efforts, Kelly told DailyMail.com in Butler on Monday: “As members of Congress, they can do that, but we were the only task force created by the Speaker and the Minority Leader.”
“I would love it if they would wait until we finally know what really happened, rather than backing out early,” he continued. “Backing out early is fine, as long as you know that what you’re saying actually happened.”
“We have talented people in Congress right now, and they love to do this stuff. That’s fine, that’s fine,” the slightly exasperated chairman said. “But there is a task force. It’s appointed by the Speaker of the House and the Minority Leader.”
“I wish – just give us time to get started on this. We didn’t just start today. This started in early August.”
