Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) says he doesn’t understand why the FBI has not held daily news conferences with updates on the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Scott joined LiveNOW from FOX’s Josh Breslow to discuss Tuesday’s joint Senate committee hearing, where lawmakers had a chance to question Paul Abbate, the deputy director of the FBI and Ronald Rowe, Jr., the acting director of the US Secret Service about the investigations into the incident and the security failures on the day of the attack.
“The American public needs information,” Sen. Scott told Breslow. “If somebody won’t tell us the answer, then our first reaction is… I don’t trust them.”
The FBI on Monday morning told reporters that would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks accessed the roof of a building near the rally by climbing up HVAC equipment and piping.
Crooks then traversed multiple rooftops before he found his shooting position on top of a building owned by American Glass Research (AGR), located near the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds about 150 yards from where the former president spoke at his rally.
The FBI hosted a press conference call with reporters more than two weeks after 20-year-old Crooks fired at Trump with a DPMS AR-15-style firearm with a collapsible stock during the rally in an assassination attempt that nicked the president’s ear but left one man dead and two others hospitalized with gunshot wounds.
Leaders on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee are making a sweeping request for records as part of the panel’s investigation into the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
The Trump campaign announced the Butler rally on July 3, and three days later, Crooks signed up for the event. That same day — July 6 — he researched how far Lee Henry Oswald was from the late President John F. Kennedy when Oswald assassinated the former president in 1963. On July 7, he traveled to the rally site and spent approximately 20 minutes in the area, Rojak said.
Trump took the podium around 6 p.m. — an hour after he was scheduled to speak. Eleven minutes later, Crooks fired multiple rounds, killing 50-year-old Corey Comperatore and seriously wounding 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver. Dutch was hospitalized and has since been released, while Copenhaver remains hospitalized.
FBI officials are still working to determine Crooks’ motive behind the assassination attempt that rocked Butler and neighboring townships. They are also still working to determine whether Crooks planned with any coconspirators, though the agency clarified on Monday that there are no signs to indicate there were others involved.
Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — the committee chair and ranking member, respectively — and Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who lead a key subcommittee, sent letters on Thursday to the Secret Service, FBI, Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis, Beaver County District Attorney, Butler County District Attorney, Butler County Sheriff, Butler Township Police Department and Pennsylvania State Police.
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