Chair of House Intelligence Committee calls Trump rally shooting ‘security failure’

Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, called the shooting at former President Trump’s Pennsylvania rally a “security failure.”

“How is it that someone could get on a roof with a superior position, with a weapon, and attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump?” Turner said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It’s just unthinkable, unfathomable.”

Members of Congress are already beginning to arrange for probes into the security at the Trump rally. The House Oversight Committee, led by Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), has called Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify in front of the committee on Monday. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) has promised a congressional investigation into the incident.

“We do have an extreme role,” Turner said of Congress’s ability to investigate. “Both the resources that are utilized and the protocols that are utilized, we have oversight, scrutiny, and responsibility for.”

Turner told CNN’s Jake Tapper that members of the House Intelligence Committee have not yet been briefed on the shooting. 

The gunman shot into the rally from a nearby rooftop, and one of the bullets, Trump said, pierced his ear. According to the FBI, the shooter and one attendee are dead, and two other attendees were critically injured.  

The shooter has been identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa. Some civilians close to the scene have reported witnessing Crooks scale the building before he shot into the crowd. They allege that law enforcement did not respond to their signaling of the shooter’s position.

“Our democracy dodged a bullet yesterday,” Turner said.