Pa. Rep. Mike Kelly to lead task force to investigate Trump assassination attempt

• By Kevin Freking / The Associated Press

A Pennsylvania congressman who witnessed the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump firsthand will lead the House task force charged with investigating what went wrong and recommending solutions to help ensure such an attack doesn’t happen again.

Republican Rep. Mike Kelly represents the city of Butler, where the July 13 attack occurred. He attended Trump’s campaign rally and sponsored the legislation to create the task force, saying his community was grieving and that “the people of Butler and the people of the United States deserve answers.”

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York jointly announced on Monday that 13 lawmakers had been appointed to the task force. It will be comprised of seven Republicans and six Democrats and will issue a final report before Dec. 13. To conduct its investigation, the House approved a resolution giving the panel the authority to issue subpoenas.

“We have the utmost confidence in this bipartisan group of steady, highly qualified, and capable members of Congress to move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and help make certain such failures never happen again,” Johnson and Jeffries said in their statement.

Many of the lawmakers have a background in law enforcement, legal affairs or the military. The panel will assume control and jurisdiction over all pending House committee investigations about the Trump assassination attempt, streamlining the work.

Two hours after Thomas Matthew Crooks fired shots at Trump, piercing the former president’s upper ear, killing Corey Comperatore, and injuring two others, Kelly posted to social media. His statement, published on Facebook and Twitter on July 13 at 7:58 p.m., included the line, “We will not tolerate this attack from the left.” 

The FBI has not found a specific political motive for Crooks’ assassination attempt. He was a registered Republican, though he made a $15 donation in 2021 to Act Blue, a Democratic-aligned organization.  

Kelly then edited his statement on July 14 at 8:50 a.m. to “We will not tolerate this attack.” He then immediately edited the statement again to remove the line altogether, according to the comment edits history on Facebook. 

In several public statements since, including an op-ed and remarks on the House floor, Kelly has said the investigation will be bi-partisan, that both parties need to turn down the political temperature and that it is important not to jump to conclusions. 

Kelly’s office did not respond to a question about why he made, then edited, his statement.

The other Republican members of the task force are Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee; Rep. David Joyce of Ohio, a former county prosecutor; Rep. Laurel Lee of Florida, a former assistant U.S. attorney; Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, a former member of the U.S. Army Special Forces; Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana, a former Army staff sergeant and local law enforcement officer; and Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas, a former U.S. Air Force officer.

Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado will serve as the lead Democratic member of the committee. He is a decorated former Army Ranger having served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Other Democratic members are Rep. Lou Correa of California, who sits on the subcommittee that recently visited the site of the assassination attempt; Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, who served in that state’s House of Representatives for more than six years before coming to Congress; Rep. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force; Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland, a former assistant U.S. attorney and state’s attorney for Prince George’s County; and Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida, the former director of emergency management in that state.

Reporting contributed by Jordan Wilkie, WITF News.