The Hill reporter Emily Brooks is just reporting that Speaker Johnson told Fox News that he will create a task force that has subpoena authority to investigate the failed assassination attempt of President Trump last Saturday.
He’s doing this to streamline the investigations and to prevent procedural hurdles from getting in the way of the investigation.
He also called on Cheatle to resign.
🚨NEW: Speaker Johnson on Fox says he will be creating a "task force" with subpoena authority to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Trump
ALSO calls for Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle to RESIGN
— Emily Brooks (@emilybrooksnews) July 17, 2024
Here’s more from The Hill:
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday called for Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign in wake of the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
Johnson also said that he will create a congressional task force to consolidate investigations into the security failures around Trump’s Saturday rally that resulted in a 20-year-old gunman injuring the president, killing one attendee, and leaving two others in critical condition.
“I’m going to call for resignation as well,” Johnson said on Fox News when asked whether Cheatle should resign. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) had called for her resignation on Tuesday.
“I think it’s inexcusable,” Johnson said.
He referenced Cheatle saying in an ABC News interview that there were no law enforcement officers stationed on the roof from which the shooter fired because the “sloped roof” created safety concerns, despite other Secret Service snipers being positioned on a roof that was also sloped.
“It doesn’t wash, and I think she’s shown what her priorities are,” Johnson said. “I don’t know her personally, but we’ll be asking lots of questions.”
Cheatle also told ABC News that she would not step down.
At least six committees across both chambers of Congress have been looking into the assassination attempt, with the various probes spurring tension with the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.
Johnson said that creation of a task force in the House will streamline the investigations.
“We’re going to move quickly. I’ll be setting up on Monday a task force, a special task force within the House,” Johnson said. “And the reason we’re going to do it that way is because that is a more of a precision strike.”
The task force will not have so many “procedural hurdles” and will have “subpoena authority,” Johnson said, and will have both Republicans and Democrats.
Johnson said he has spoken with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and leaders at the FBI and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
“There’s real questions, let’s just put it that way,” Johnson said. “The answers have not been forthcoming. I think they’re gathering data, we’re going to do it as well. We have to have accountability for this. It was inexcusable. Obviously, there were security lapses. You don’t have to be a special-ops expert to understand that.”