Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) says he has asked for detailed information about the security situation at former President Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa., and has promised to pursue an “investigation bipartisan” report of the incident and a “comprehensive assessment” of campaign security.
Republican members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee demanded hearings after the shooting, which exposed what appeared to be a serious lapse in Trump’s security at the rally, where the former president was grazed by a bullet, one person was killed and in at least two others injured.
“We announced that we will have a… bipartisan Homeland Security Committee investigation to look at the events that occurred and determine whether or not there were security breaches that we need to close,” Peters told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.
The Democratic committee chairman said he spoke “in depth” with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday and would have a briefing with the FBI on Monday.
Asked about calls for President Biden to abandon his re-election campaign, Peters reiterated that he is “focused on starting this bipartisan investigation to find out exactly what happened” and to ensure that something similar does not happen again.
“We must ensure that the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies have the resources necessary to protect presidents and former presidents, as well as other elected officials,” he said.
He also said he would try to “expedite” a hearing on the shooting, after members of his committee, including Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida), asked officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service to testify before the panel this month. .
“We will try to speed this up. So at this time we are asking for detailed instructions for committee members,” Peters told reporters.
He said the investigation and hearing would be similar to what the Homeland Security Committee did after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“We did a comprehensive security assessment after January 6th. In that investigation, we had a number of recommendations, and a significant number of those recommendations have now been incorporated into security practices here at the Capitol,” Peters noted.
“This model of what we did [for] On January 6th, we will do it again, for this horrible attack on the former president,” he said.
Peters said the potential threats against members of Congress are also “concerning” given what he called a “polarized time.”
“There is a lot of criticism on social media at the moment. And that’s not helpful. It’s important for everyone to take a step back and calm down. But certainly some of the rhetoric we see on social media should be concerning to all Americans,” he said.
Peters is also chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, whose role is to protect Democratic candidates running for re-election.
Al Weaver contributed.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
