Former senate homeland chair calls for congressional hearings following Trump rally shooting

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the former chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, joined calls for a congressional probe into security at the Saturday Pennsylvania Trump rally. 

“It was a failure,” Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper Sunday on “State of the Union.” “There absolutely have to be congressional oversight hearings.”

A gunman fired shots into the rally, where Trump was speaking to supporters. The former president said a bullet hit his ear. According to the FBI, the shooter and one rally goer are dead, and two other attendees were critically injured. 

Reports indicate that the shooter, now identified by the F.B.I. as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa., aimed from a nearby roof top approximately 140 yards away from where the president was speaking. Some civilians close to the scene have reported witnessing the shooter scale the building and signaling to law enforcement.

“Obviously, that roof should not have been a place where somebody with a rifle should have been able to go,” Johnson said. “The Department of Justice, Secret Service, and FBI need to be completely transparent.”

The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. 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 pledged to launch investigations into the rally shooting.

Sen. Johnson also lauded the former president for his calls for national “unity” following the assassination attempt on his life.

“Trump knew exactly the risks he was taking running for reelection. he knew he‘d be vilified,” Sen. Johnson added. “He realized his life would be at risk, but he did it anyway.”