Did Shooter Do Anything That ‘Should’ve Caused Alarm' Before Trump Shooting?’: Carper Asks Officials

last month

During a joint hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) questioned officials about the Trump assassination attempt.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. O, Mr. O'Bate, thank you for joining us today.

00:04I have the privilege of representing Delaware,

00:08the first state to ratify the Constitution.

00:10We did that over 200 years ago,

00:12and the Constitution sort of outlines

00:15how we elect our leaders,

00:17and it changes with respect to technology over the years.

00:20But there's, for as long as we've been a country,

00:24threats to our leaders when they pursue elective office.

00:27We're gonna be gathering,

00:28we'll be gathering in Chicago in just a few weeks.

00:32There's gonna be gathering in other parts of the country

00:34to help make sure that what was adopted

00:37in that original Constitution

00:38is actually carried out faithfully.

00:40And it's just incredibly important

00:42that those who aspire to elective office,

00:43and those who take on those challenges are protected,

00:46and their families are protected,

00:47as well as those who surround them.

00:50I share with my colleagues my prayers

00:54for those who've been killed or injured

00:57on July 13th.

00:58We're grateful that one of our presidential candidates

01:02was, is okay.

01:04But I have a question about what,

01:08I still can't, I can't get over how a 20-year-old loner,

01:1220-year-old loner could somehow outfox, outsmart

01:16two of the smartest federal agencies

01:19and state agencies in law enforcement

01:22with an odds of like 1,000 to one,

01:24and be able to almost pull this off.

01:26It just blows my mind.

01:27Hopefully we'll get to the truth in all of that.

01:32I'm a Navy guy, spent 20 many years of my life in the Navy.

01:35I learned as a midshipman that when the ship

01:38runs aground at sea, the commanding officer

01:41is held responsible.

01:42Whether the commanding officer is awake or asleep

01:43at the helm, but the commanding officer

01:45is held responsible.

01:47And I think we have to make, at the end of the day,

01:48I'm not interested in a playing game,

01:50but I'm sure interested in finding out

01:51who was responsible and making sure

01:53that they account for their responsibility.

01:57My question is, what policies are currently in place

02:00to facilitate real-time information sharing

02:04between the Secret Service and local law enforcement

02:06during an event, and what changes

02:09to information sharing practices

02:11will the Secret Service make in light

02:13of the apparent breakdown in communications on July 13th?

02:19Thank you for that question, Senator.

02:21So we're looking at our procedures.

02:25We rely on a counterpart system.

02:27And the radio interoperability, it's a complex challenge.

02:32It's not just about being able to find

02:36whatever frequency our local counterparts are on

02:38and then just piping it in.

02:40There's some technical challenges that have to be there.

02:44So to alleviate that, we've always relied

02:47on a security room where we have representatives

02:52from the local agencies.

02:54Those individuals are there to, one, bring their own radio

02:58and then relay relevant information

03:01that would impact our security plan.

03:04I think what I'm looking at, and again,

03:08what I'm looking at this situation is,

03:12there was a unified command post

03:14and we had our security room.

03:16And we had communications that day

03:20at the Butler Farm site were challenging.

03:23Not just challenging for the Secret Service,

03:24but for challenging for locals.

03:26There were some cellular issues.

03:27There were radio issues.

03:32And so, and you saw that with the testimony

03:37from the colonel from Pennsylvania State Police

03:39last week in the House.

03:41So I think as I'm thinking about this,

03:43I think we need to consider what is our model moving forward

03:51and I think we need to be where the greatest amount

03:54of partners are when that information is being discussed.

03:58The other thing that I'm looking at is we need

04:01to also make sure that we have redundancies

04:03as far as cellular on the ground or additional repeaters.

04:08And so I've directed our chief information officer

04:10to do that and we are rolling assets out now

04:14supporting campaign sites.

04:16Thank you for that.

04:17Mr. Bae, quick question.

04:18Based on the initial information you've gathered

04:21from the investigation, do you believe

04:23there were any actions taken by the shooter

04:25in the weeks, days, or hours leading up to the shooting

04:28that should have caused alarm

04:30and grabbed the attention of law enforcement?

04:33He did not have any interactions with law enforcement

04:35leading up to this, Senator.

04:38We haven't found anything yet that would have alerted

04:40law enforcement or FBI or Secret Service

04:43to his intention activities in advance of this event.

04:46I will note, however, to your prior question

04:49that we do have a very strong relationship,

04:51an integrated relationship between FBI and Secret Service

04:55and every other federal, state, local agency

04:58you can imagine.

04:59We have constructs like the Joint Terrorism Task Forces

05:02and Violent Crime Task Forces

05:03where we're cross-embedded with each other.

05:06And when it comes to this event and others like it,

05:09we're always talking in advance.

05:10In fact, with respect to this event,

05:12we did have a meeting between U.S. Secret Service and FBI

05:16in the days leading up to the event to determine,

05:19assess whether there was any information or intelligence

05:23pertaining to a threat against the rally

05:26or to former President Trump or anyone else there.

05:30There was an absence of that in the lead-up specifically.

05:33And again, none of us had any information,

05:36our holdings with regard to the ultimate shooter.

05:39All right, thank you for that.

05:40Thanks very much, both of you.

05:43Next on the Senate Judiciary Committee is Senator Gray.

Did Shooter Do Anything That ‘Should’ve Caused Alarm' Before Trump Shooting?’: Carper Asks Officials

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