by Christen Smith
A congressional committee investigating the near-assassination of former President Donald Trump will return Monday to the Pennsylvania fairgrounds, where chaos erupted last month.
Republican Party Chairman Rep. Mike Kelly, whose district includes Butler, Pa., said in a statement that the assessment is a “critical step toward ensuring Americans get the answers they deserve.”
In an interview with The Daily Focus earlier this month, the congressman said the 13-member bipartisan panel wants to know why federal agents chose the Butler Farm Show grounds as the site for the July 13 rally and why the event was allowed to proceed despite admitted knowledge that a “suspicious” person had been spotted climbing onto a nearby rooftop with a rifle in his hand.
“At the end of the day, we want to make sure that all of the conspiracy theories, all of the ideas and claims that are out there about how this happened, get to the truth of what happened that day in a factual way so that the American people and the people that we work for say, ‘OK, fine, that makes sense,'” he said. he said.
Kelly was among several congressmen and state legislators attending a campaign rally in his home district. when an attacker with a gun aimed at Trumpbrushing his ear as the President turned his head to look at the projector screen behind him.
Today's Task Force site assessment is a critical step toward getting the American people the answers they deserve.https://t.co/01Tr2SVdSa
— Rep. Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyPA) August 26, 2024
The future killer fired several more shots into the crowd, killing 50-year-old Corey Comperatore and injuring 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaven.
US Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle resigned after the shooting amid intense pressure from congressional lawmakers over “staggering” security lapses.
Cheatle’s comments on why law enforcement officers did not respond to the rooftop where the shooter was located varied: blaming state and local police down slight roof slope in itself is “too dangerous” existing “overhead” support aimed at identifying threats.
The conflicting excuses have only fueled conspiracy theories — backed by some prominent congressional lawmakers — that point to a broader government plot to kill Trump. Cheatle has categorically denied the accusations.
Other officials attribute the failure to incompetence, not conspiracyincluding Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity.
Kelly, who was appointed chairman of the task force on July 29they said they would find the truth.
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Christen Smith is a regional editor at Central Square.
