(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Secret Service held another closed-door briefing with Senators on Thursday about the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump—and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were reportedly “appalled” by what they heard.
“I think the American people will be shocked, astonished and appalled by what we will report to them about the failures of the Secret Service in this assassination attempt of a former president,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters after the briefing.
“But I think they also ought to be appalled and astonished by the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to be more forthcoming, to be as candid and frank as it should be to them in terms of providing information,” he added, according to the New York Post.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., also was among those frustrated with Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe.
“There is a lot that we don’t know yet, and I think there is some frustration that was voiced, I think with Acting Director Rowe,” Johnson told reporters. “He’s making the commitment to provide more information.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., told Fox News that the Senate is set to issue an interim report on the assassination attempt “shortly.” According to the Post, Johnson said he expects the preliminary document to be released before the end of this month, when Congress breaks for the election races.
However, it looks like Peters wants a lot more info before releasing a preliminary report.
“It will be coming out shortly. And it’ll only be an interim report because there’s a lot more information that we need to find,” Peters told Fox News.
“And we hope once this report comes out and we can get the additional information necessary to have a complete report of what happened, as well as steps of what we need to do in the future to make sure that this never happens.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reportedly said that the report will “identify very specific errors.”
“To me, it’s still inexcusable that a guy for 90 minutes before a rally has a rangefinder and you don’t stop the proceeding,” Paul said.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
