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The U.S. Congress said it will quickly request briefings and launch an investigation into the attempted assassination that injured former U.S. President Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13.
“Congress will conduct a full investigation into yesterday’s tragedy to determine where there were security breaches and everything else the American people need to know and deserve to know,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday on the “TODAY” show.
“But in the meantime, we have to tone down the rhetoric. We have to turn down the heat in this country.” Johnson said he had “received briefings from law enforcement” and asked “targeted questions” of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Saturday night.
Top Democratic leaders in Congress also condemned the shooting. “I am horrified by what happened at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former President Trump is safe.
“Political violence has no place in our country,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has asked Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at a July 22 hearing. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., also asked Mayorkas for answers in a letter Sunday. In a separate letter to Cheatle, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) asked for answers about the lack of security at the Trump rally, including whether the Trump campaign had requested additional protection and whether those resources were denied. Gallego, a military veteran, wrote that the shooting “raises grave concerns about the security measures or lack thereof that were taken to protect a former President of the United States and a leading presidential candidate.” “I call on all those responsible for planning, approving, and executing this failed security plan to be held accountable and to testify immediately before Congress,” Gallego wrote in the letter, first obtained by NBC News. Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., announced in the wake of the shooting that they would introduce legislation “that would provide President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. with enhanced Secret Service protection.”
“The Capitol Police are coordinating to provide additional support for events related to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions,” the notice reads.
