WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Tuesday that a bipartisan special committee formed to investigate the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump will be expanded to include the alleged bombing attempt on the Republican presidential candidate’s golf club in Florida last weekend.
“Our responsibility here in Congress is to get to the bottom of this, to determine why these things are happening and what we can do about it,” Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said in a statement.
Johnson said he spoke with the White House and insisted that Trump receive the same level of protection from the Secret Service as a sitting president.
“He is under constant threat,” Johnson said of Trump.
While Trump he was not injured in the second possible attack, was wounded in the ear during a shooting in Butler in July.
“It’s in the middle of a heated campaign, and this is the obvious thing that’s been proven that we need to do this,” Johnson said. “In the meantime, Congress will do everything we can to make this happen. And one of the things we’ll do is expand the scope of the existing task force to cover a second assassination attempt.”
The task force, led by Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, on Tuesday demanded that the Department of Justice and the FBI inform lawmakers by Friday about a possible attack.
Florida incident suspect Ryan Wesley Routh was charged in federal court on Monday with possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a felony and obliterating the serial number on the firearm, according to court documents.
Acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe said Monday that Routh did not fire the shot.
Rowe said that since the July 13 assassination attempt, the U.S. Secret Service “has taken action to increase resources to provide the former president with already enhanced protection.”
He added that President Joe Biden “has made it clear that he wants to provide former President Trump with the highest level of protection.”
“The Secret Service has taken actions to maintain asset growth and the desired level of protection, and those actions were taken yesterday,” Rowe said of Sunday’s incident.
