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A bipartisan House panel has released a report stating that the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13 was "preventable and should not have happened." The report, released on Monday (October 21), details the "stunning security failures" at the event, which resulted in Trump being struck in the ear by gunfire. One rallygoer was killed and two others were wounded in the shooting.
The report focuses on the "fragmented lines of communication and unclear chains of command" between the Secret Service and Pennsylvania state and local police. It places the majority of the blame on the Secret Service for the security breakdown. The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to climb up and shoot due to the lack of security at the building, which was widely agreed to be a security threat.
The report states that "Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers could have engaged Thomas Matthew Crooks at several pivotal moments." However, due to fragmented lines of communication, Crooks was able to evade law enforcement and climb onto the unsecured roof, where he eventually opened fire. The report concludes that the tragic events of July 13 were preventable and should not have happened.
The findings are based on thousands of pages of documents, nearly two dozen transcribed interviews with state and local officials, and a series of both classified and non-classified briefings from senior officials at the Secret Service and the FBI. The House task force, comprised of seven Republicans and six Democrats, plans to issue a final report, including recommendations to avoid future assassination attempts against political candidates, by mid-December. The task force has also begun investigating a second assassination attempt on Trump last month, where a man with a rifle camped outside one of his golf courses in southern Florida.