Congress Members Speak from Trump Shooting Location

Of question about so when is this task force going to start its task? And my answer is we started weeks ago in Washington, DC. We actually have staff members who are working right now. (00:10) Now, if you're running for reelection, they have a little thing called the primaries in some cases, and the fact that's another election coming up. So we're busy in our home districts from different parts of the country, different time zones. It's very difficult for us to get together other than conference calls. (00:26) Jason and I were together at Normandy. He chose to jump out of an airplane. I chose to wish him luck as he did that, but we're on this mission now.

That was the smarter side of the equation.

Well, I don't know about that, but I tell you what, I think if you were to look at us and we just had a conversation, there's not one person on this conference that's identifying just as a Republican or a Democrat. We're identifying as members of Congress on a task force with a task to restore the faith and trust and confidence the American people have to have in our system. So with that being said, Jason Crow, who is co-chairing this with me, please, Jason.

All right. Good afternoon. I'm Jason Crow from Colorado. I want to start by thanking Chairman Mike Kelly for welcoming us to his home district and for setting a great tone of bipartisanship on this task force. (01:15) I want to thank the people of Butler for welcoming us to their community. I know there's been a lot of attention and scrutiny on this community since July 13th, but they've been very gracious and welcoming during our visit here. (01:26) I want to thank the Pennsylvania State Police and the Butler County Sheriff's Department for also hosting us and welcoming us and showing us around as well. (01:37) Listen, something that doesn't happen very often happened in the House of Representatives last month when we took the vote to establish this task force, and that is every single voting member of the House of Representatives that day, all 416 members, voted to create this task force and to empower this group to answer really important questions for the American people. (02:01) And I think that sends a very strong message that you don't have to be a Democrat or a Republican or an unaffiliated to say that there's no room for political violence in America. We have debates, we're going to have tough debates, and we're in the midst of a election cycle right now, and all of us are going to have those tough debates. (02:20) But in the United States of America, you do not get to attempt to assassinate our elected officials and our candidates. It's unacceptable. And we are standing here in a bipartisan way to send the message that we won't tolerate it. (02:32) So we're going to get answers. The American people have a lot of questions, we have a lot of questions. What we hope to do here today is to help restore confidence in the American people that their elected officials and their candidates are secure. And we know there's a lot of Americans sitting at home that don't have that confidence. (02:51) So that is our work. We're going to take it very seriously. We have very limited amounts of time between now and December 13th. We're going to conduct a full, thorough and robust investigation, and it's going to be done in a bipartisan way.

Okay, very good. Thank you. Thank you. So the members that are with me today, some of them have been here before, some have not. The first person I'm going to recognize is Ms. Laurel Lee from Florida. Ms. Laurel Lee, please.

Thank you, Chairman Kelly, Ranking Member Crow. I'm Laurel Lee from Florida, and thank you to the people of Butler for having us here today. It is so important that this task force has the opportunity to do what we did here, to actually walk these grounds, to see this area, to get an understanding of the physical space and where this security shortcoming took place. (03:36) And I'll tell you, for many of us it raises more questions than we came here with today because we can see it's not a large place. We can get a sense of the area and just how close these buildings were to that stage where President Trump stood that day. So for all of us, having an opportunity to see and to walk around and experience this was a really critical step in our investigative process. (03:59) We go from here to have the opportunity to speak to many of the men and women from law enforcement who were here on that day and have information and facts that they can give to all of us. (04:10) We have been working since the day this task force was formed. We have been working on getting answers for the American people. The members of this task force aren't just bipartisan, we come from all around America and bring a background to this process that will help us get the answers the American people deserve. (04:29) We have former military officers, intelligence officers, prosecutors and judges. And between us, we understand how to conduct an investigation, and we are committed, all of us, to ensuring that we understand what happened on this day and that the Secret Service and their law enforcement partners are providing that transparency so we can ensure that any protectee, both of our presidential candidates and any protectee out on the trail, is kept safe. Thank you.

Thank you.

Lou Correa from California.

I also want to thank the chairman, the ranking member for putting this great team together. Congressman Correa from Orange County, California. (05:09) I just want to say that this was about democracy, about American democracy. We have a campaign and elections for president and for other elected offices throughout the country. We want our candidates to speak their minds, to make their opinions, their thoughts known to the American public, to the voters. We don't want them to be afraid to speak their minds. (05:34) We want to make sure we get to the bottom of this, make sure that this does not repeat itself again, that our candidates are safe, so that our democracy is safe. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Lou. Representative David Joyce from Ohio.

Thank you, Chairman Kelly, and Ranking Member Crow, and all my colleagues here. I look forward to working with all of them using their background and their expertise to establish the facts so we can make judgments based upon those facts and deliver to the American people the answers that they deserve. Thank you.

Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan from Pennsylvania.

Thank you again to the chairman and to the ranking member. My name is Chrissy Houlahan. I come from the other side of Pennsylvania from the Philadelphia area, Philadelphia suburbs, and where I serve and representative is roughly speaking 40% Dem, 40% Republican, and 20% independent. (06:32) My community looks a lot like the Commonwealth, looks a lot like the country, and my community wants to make sure that we can work together, that we can work together to get the answers that we deserve, because there is no time when political violence is acceptable, and it certainly is not acceptable that anybody who's a candidate or seeking elected office should be vulnerable in this way and that the people who are gathered to hear them and their opinions should be vulnerable in this way too. (07:00) By my background, I'm a military officer, Air Force, but also an engineer and an operator. I spent most of my life in operations. And so what I'm going to be spending my time on is trying to understand what happened in terms of procedures and protocols to make sure that we understand that. And specifically also we'll be focusing on some new technologies such as the drone that was involved in this particular situation. (07:22) I very much look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues, many of whom are my dear friends and all are my friends. I look forward to serving the American people in this way.

Perfect. Thank you.

Glenn Ivey from Maryland.

Thank you, Congressman. My name's Glenn Ivey. I'm a congressman who represents a part of Maryland, former federal prosecutor, had a chance to do some of these types of investigations when I worked as a staffer in the Senate and in the House. (07:51) But I want to say that I really appreciate the bipartisan nature and approach that we've taken so far with this task force. As Congressman Crow stated, we had a 416 to zero vote, and I thought it was the right way to get started and I think it sent the right message to the American people that we weren't going to let politics get in the middle of this, that we were going to work together to get this done in a very quick and expeditious way, because it's so important, as the Congressman said before, to make sure everybody understands, whether they're candidates or voters alike, that the Democratic process will not be undermined by violence. We're going to make sure we protect all candidates and voters, because we had someone who came to the rally who died that day too, so we need to make sure that they're protected as well. (08:35) So I thank my colleagues here for the outstanding job we've been doing so far to get this thing started quickly and the bipartisan approach we've taken so far. Thank you.

[inaudible 00:08:44].

Madeleine Dean from Pennsylvania.

Thank you. Hello, I'm Madeleine Dean. I represent Suburban Philadelphia, Montgomery and Berks County, the 4th congressional district. (08:55) It's an honor to be serving with this task force. We are charged with a very clear mission to get to the truth, to get to the facts, to find the gaps and report that out. And we have a very short timeframe to do it. (09:08) You see here a number of people who are just serious about this in a nonpartisan way, so I'm honored to be a part of it. I want to thank Chairman Kelly for welcoming us here and making sure we got to see what we can see here, because as you can see, what's impressive to me is the proximity of everything here, particularly the position of the shooter and the position of the president. (09:32) So glad to be here. I thank the Ranking Member Crow. I got phone calls from both of you and they both had the exact same idea of what we were to do to get to the truth to say there is no place for political violence, not just for candidates, but for those who want to be civically engaged, for those who came here excited to be a part of something bigger than themselves, they need to be free from violence. Happy to be here with you.

Jared Moskowitz from Florida.

Thank you, Ranking Member. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for bringing us here today as Democrats and Republicans, as members of the task force and as Americans. (10:13) Being here and seeing the proximity of the buildings, it reminds me, quite frankly, how outrageous it was that the Former Director of Secret Service did not come here to get a sense of what this looked like. (10:26) And so we are working in a bipartisan nature. As a Former Director of Emergency Management for the State of Florida, I look forward to getting the facts of what failed that day. We were inches away from an American catastrophe. And then figuring out what steps we can take to make sure something like this never happens again, so thank you.

Okay. Great. All right. Well, so all the members have had a chance to speak, and I think the most important thing is it recognizes we are US representatives, not Democrats, not Republicans, but both searching for the answers and reassuring the American people that we can work together and we can get the right answers so this doesn't happen again. (11:05) I think for Jason and I, it was an easy thing to get on board with because we're more team members than quarterbacking things. But I got to tell you, we're glad to be here, and I would like all our colleagues that are with us, it's fantastic to have you all here. The idea that they can come to this exact site to see what happened is incredibly important. (11:25) I'm just going to open up for a few questions. We are on a pretty busy schedule because we have a lot of other stuff we're going to be talking to. Local law enforcement is waiting to talk to us. So as quickly as we can, we'll take some questions.

Thomas Crooks had a clear line of sight when you guys were all up on that AGR roof. Just how stunned were you? I'm told zero obstacles to the stage. Can someone speak to that?

Well, only because I was here much earlier and I saw all this go on, but I think when you talk to the members of this committee who actually have done that in military service, they look at it and they look at the measuring of distances and they said, "How could this not have been prevented?" (12:05) And the burning question is always going to be with me. There was knowledge ahead of time that there was a person of suspicion on that roof and armed. The key was get the Former President of the United States off the podium, then there's nothing that has to take place. Mr. Comperatore would be alive today, the two men that were wounded, the president. And also, not only did we lose Mr. Comperatore that day, the Crooks family lost their son.

Before Congress I was an Army ranger, I served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and one of the fundamental principles you operate is you always secure the high ground or you have eyes on the high ground. So I definitely took note today that there were a lot of lines of sight that appear to have been unsecured that day that didn't have eyes on or that weren't secured. And certainly at this point a lot more questions than answers.

Can you share which federal agencies you all have communicated with thus far? And two, some other lawmakers involved in separate probes accused the FBI and Secret Service of stonewalling. Can you say whether you all have experienced that thus far?

No, I think we've asked for information, right? And we've got partial information back. The whole effort for this task force is to make sure we get all the answers to the questions we asked and be able to go forward from there. (13:23) I think we've got to be very careful, because there's reports out there about five members of the Secret Service have been put on leave or whatever the term is they want to use. So right away the question comes up, "Well, what did we know that we didn't react to?" (13:36) I just think that really at this point, and I think whenever Jason and I first talked, the most important thing that we can get out there is not get it out quickly, but get it out accurately so the American people can say, "Okay, that makes sense." When you do day after day after day of a different opinion, I think that's what adds to then the idea they're hiding something, they're stonewalling, whatever. (13:56) We've made requests, the staff in DC, right? They're going through all this. They're getting answers for us. We did have a phone conversation last week with the FBI, and I think we're all longing for the time that we can be together, question those people on those different committees, "What was it that you were doing that day?" And let's follow up on that. (14:19) I just think getting to the truth is a slow process. And for us, none of us are looking at it as we have to get a quick answer, we're looking at we have to get the right answer. I just know with his background, everything they do is planned, as a special ops guy, everything is planned. It just doesn't happen. So I think that's what we're relying on. We've got really good people looking for the truth, so.

Yeah. Thank you, Chairman. Our staff is in regular communication with all of the federal agencies involved. We've received several briefings. Two, the members are including the members just last week with the FBI, including a staff-level briefing from the Secret Service as well. (14:56) We have sent one letter, the chairman and I have sent one letter, assuming jurisdiction from all other committees in directing any further productions of information to the task force, which according to the legislation that was passed last month, we are the sole task force of jurisdiction for the House of Representatives for this investigation, and we are proceeding that way. (15:17) And with respect to any other investigations, the FBI is conducting a criminal investigation. There are inspector general investigations that every agency conducts as a matter of course, and we are aware of other members conducting reviews. But again, this is the committee or this is the task force that the House of Representatives has empowered with subpoena power with a full investigative authority to conduct the review.

Congressman [inaudible 00:15:44].

Ms. Lee? Wait, Ms. Lee is going to comment also.

And I'll just add to that. So to this point, we have heard from a number of federal agencies from Secret Service. We've been in contact with the FBI. We've had a briefing with the FBI. (15:57) And more than that, we also have heard and have had an opportunity to interview many of the men and women from state and local law enforcement who were a critical part of the security procedure on that day. (16:08) We've also reached out to and we'll continue to hear from the men and women who attended the rally, because their observations, what they saw and heard and things that in some cases they recorded on their phones are all part of developing the full fact picture of what happened that day. (16:24) It is very important also to note that because we are taking over the investigations that, of course, as soon as this happened, immediately Congress sprang to action. A number of committees within Congress that touched jurisdiction here started their own investigations. We've consolidated that into one place with members from those committees represented on this task force. (16:44) So as we go forward, this is the committee that will have the ability to subpoena records. If we do feel that we aren't getting full and complete disclosure from any federal law enforcement agency, we will be able to subpoena them to require them to produce documents and to produce witnesses. And if there is any moment where we feel we are not getting full and complete transparency, that is exactly what we will do.

I know-

Mr. Chairman, you've talked, a couple of the-

Anybody else? Wait one second. Anybody else want to comment on that? Okay, go ahead.

A couple of the members have talked about being surprised seeing the proximity of the buildings today. I wonder if you can elaborate on the tangible benefits you see of actually coming here beyond that and seeing all of this rather than relying on pictures and video and all of that?

Well, it's the difference between day and night. When you're actually here on this surface, when you're actually walking in these grounds, when you're actually going to the building, when you're actually up on the roof, when you're actually looking at where did we have people positioned? Where was the shooter positioned? If you can actually look at that right now in person, then all the rest of the pictures, right away it's like, "Okay, I got it, I got it. I know where that was." (17:49) So the big thing for us being here today was to actually be on the ground, get familiar with the ground, be comfortable with the questions we were going to ask because of the way it was laid out. And I think... I can't. Jason, you want to weigh in on that?

Well said, Chairman. Yeah.

Yes, yes. Lou.

I was just going to say that this is my second time I've been back. And some of the locals spoke to me first time I was here as well as today, and a couple of questions come up. First of all, where does the buck stop? Who's ultimately responsible for what happened here? And number two, more importantly, is who's in charge? (18:26) I heard something today that the campaign had a lot to do with the planning of this, and so I want to know who makes ultimately the decisions. If the Secret Service says do X, and the campaign says do not do that, who decides? And then ultimately, who's responsible for the outcome? And those are questions we have to drill down on to make sure it doesn't happen again. We have two candidates running for president right now in real time. We have to make sure this does not happen again. Thank you.

Part of the task force will be determining motive for the gunman. Are there plans for the task force to speak to the family of Crooks, his father, classmates, presumably the fact that they live about an hour away?

We're not going to comment right now about specifically who we are going to talk to. I mean, we'll talk about the entities, and we've been in touch regularly with the Secret Service, the FBI, local law enforcement, but we're not going to say yet specific individuals.

Quick follow-up-

We have time for one more question.

... Congressman Waltz said that he had doubts that the Secret Service and the FBI, that Crooks had acted alone. To the Democrats on the committee, do you share that concern? Do you have doubts about-

Who said that?

Who said that?

... the fact that...

I'll take that [inaudible 00:19:48].

Congressman Waltz who is on the task force but is not here today.

Go ahead. [inaudible 00:19:51].

[inaudible 00:19:52]. Yeah, please. Appreciate the question. Mike Waltz is a fantastic member from Florida. I think it's too early to make that determination. And at this moment, I don't think anyone in the task force has seen any hard evidence that would suggest that would be the case.

Are you going to release the social media [inaudible 00:20:06]?

[inaudible 00:20:06].

Thank you all. Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you all.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

One of ours.

Thank you so much.

In a day's work, huh?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

[inaudible 00:20:28].

Oh, hey. Hey. How you doing? [inaudible 00:20:37]. Who would've thought? How's the old Polar Radio?

Not Polar Radio.

The old kitty cat?

[inaudible 00:20:45].