Chicago – July 14, 2024
Republican lawmakers said they would launch swift investigations into how a person managed to evade Secret Service agents and climb onto the roof of a building near where former U.S. President Donald Trump was speaking at an election rally and fire multiple shots before being killed.
Mike Johnson, speaker of the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, said panels in the chamber will call officials from the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI for hearings soon.
The House oversight panel called Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify on July 22.
While information about the incident was still sparse, early media reports said the shooter was outside the security perimeter of the rally venue in Butler, Pennsylvania. One person interviewed by the BBC said he had seen the man with gun and tried unsuccessfully to alert police and the Secret Service.
Trump supporters blasted the Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting Trump as a former U.S. president. Billionaire Elon Musk called for the agency’s leadership to resign.
