Senior officials from the Secret Service and FBI head to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a rare joint hearing examining the security lapses leading up to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Ronald Rowe Jr., acting director of the Secret Service, and Paul Abbate, deputy director of the FBI, will appear before the Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees beginning at 10 a.m.
Up to 32 different senators will have the chance to ask questions between the two panels. Four senators — Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) — are members of both committees.
“The basic question is, how did he get the gun on the premises?” Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said to reporters Monday, adding he’d also like to know what security changes will be implemented ahead of the August DNC in Chicago.
He noted: “There are half a dozen kids like [the shooter] in every high school in America. This kid didn’t appear — the 20-year-old — did not appear to have a specific political agenda. He had a gun. He used it. Sadly, a person died.”
The leaders of the Homeland Security panel made a sweeping request for records related to the attempted assassination as part of the committee’s bipartisan investigation last week.
Expect plenty of questions about FBI Director Christoper Wray’s remark last week that there was “some question” as to whether a bullet or shrapnel caused the injury to Trump’s ear during the attack. The agency later clarified it was indeed a bullet that hurt the former president.
An FBI official said Monday that Trump agreed to sit for an interview about the incident.
Rowe and Abbate will hope to improve on the performance of then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who infuriated members from both parties during House testimony by offering vague answers about the assassination attempt. She later resigned following the Hill appearance.
