The House task force investigating the July assassination attempt against Donald Trump will now also formally investigate the apparent assassination attempt at Trump’s Florida golf club, NOTUS has learned.
The specifics of what that will look like are still being ironed out, per a source familiar.
Rep. Mike Kelly, the chair of the task force, told NOTUS he had a phone conversation with Speaker Mike Johnson “for about 10 minutes or so” on Monday morning, during which Johnson said that he intends to have the task force investigate both incidents.
“I said, ‘You know, Mr. Speaker, whatever you decide, you’re not going to get an argument from me,’” Kelly said. Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to NOTUS’ request for comment on the conversation.
The House approved the task force in July to specifically investigate the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and it’s unclear if a new vote will be needed to expand its scope officially. The task force announced on Sunday that it requested a briefing with the U.S. Secret Service “about what happened and how security responded” in Florida, per a press release.
Kelly said after the Pennsylvania attempt, it was difficult to understand how a suspect was able to get so close to Trump in Florida.
“You would think that there was heightened security and knowledge of it,” Kelly told NOTUS. “That makes absolutely no sense.”
Kelly says he has questions he hopes will get answered: How did law enforcement let Trump make a public appearance in Pennsylvania when they knew there was a risk? And in Florida, how did the suspect know about the former president’s “private” plans to play golf and where to position himself to try and take a shot?
Kelly, who repeatedly told NOTUS that he hopes the bipartisan task force does not become political, blamed anti-Trump rhetoric for the incidents of political violence against the former president.
“When people make that declaration that ‘this is the greatest threat to our democracy,’ to me, that is a dog whistle for folks that are out there that are so deeply involved in this,” Kelly said.
“I think that’s dangerous because there are people that hear that” and instead of thinking they can vote Trump out, they think, “‘I must eliminate this threat,’” he added.
Kelly did not specifically blame Democrats — he said “anybody” who has personally attacked Trump should “watch what it is that you say because people take it literally” — but he did say that statements by Trump, who has called Democrats the “real threat” who “want to destroy our country,” weren’t “nearly as inflammatory” as those against him.
“I don’t blame [Trump] for making statements,” Kelly said. “If my life had [almost] been taken twice, not once but twice … I think I would be a lot more combative.”
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Oriana González and Reese Gorman are reporters at NOTUS.