by Christen Smith
The congressional task force investigating the near-assassination of former President Donald Trump will return to the Pennsylvania fairgrounds on Monday where the chaos unfolded last month.
Republican Chairman Rep. Mike Kelly, whose district includes Butler, Pa., said on X that the assessment is “a critical step toward getting the American people 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 for the July 13 rally and why the event was allowed to continue despite admitted knowledge that a “suspicious” person was spotted scaling a nearby roof with a rifle in tow.
“At the end of the day we want to make sure that all of the conspiracy theories, all of the ideas out there and the statements that have been made of how it happened, we actually get to the truth of what happened that day, factually so that the American people and the people we work for say, ‘OK, fine, that makes sense’,” he said.
Kelly was among several congressional and state lawmakers present at the campaign rally in his home district when a gunman took aim at Trump, grazing his ear after the president turned his head to look at a projector screen behind him.
The would-be assassin fired several more shots into the crowd, killing 50-year-old Corey Comperatore and wounding 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaven.
U.S. Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle resigned after the shooting amid intense pressure from congressional lawmakers over the “stunning” security failures.
Cheatle’s comments about reasons why law enforcement weren’t on the roof where the gunman staged himself ranged from blaming state and local police to the slight pitch of the roof itself being “too dangerous” to existing “overhead” support meant to identify threats.
The conflicting excuses only fueled conspiracy theories – backed by some prominent congressional lawmakers – that pointed to a broader government conspiracy to kill Trump. Cheatle has categorically denied the accusation.
Other officials have attributed the breakdown to incompetence, rather than conspiracy, including Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity.
Kelly, who was named chairman of the task force on July 29, said they will find the truth.
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Christen Smith is a regional editor at The Center Square.
