A campaign rally site for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is empty and littered with debris Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, PA.
Evan Vucci/AP

The Lawmaker Leading the Investigation Into the Trump Assassination Attempt Says He Warned Campaign Staff About the Venue

Rep. Mike Kelly insisted in an interview that his task force would skirt politics as it seeks a complete answer to what happened in July.

Evan Vucci/AP

BUTLER, Pennsylvania — Rep. Mike Kelly has been a loud Trump ally for years. But as he begins the official investigation into the assassination attempt against the former president, he sees Donald Trump’s team as part of the problem.

Kelly first heard Trump would be coming to his home district 10 days before the July rally, and from the beginning, he warned the Trump campaign advance staff that the Butler Farm Show would be a “disaster” as a rally site, he told NOTUS during a 50-minute sit-down interview Monday. There’s only one lane going in or out of the venue because of construction, and the capacity is far smaller than the fairgrounds or the airport, where Trump campaigned in October 2020.

However, he claims the Trump campaign wouldn’t listen to him.