Speaker Johnson joined America’s Newsroom on Fox News to announce that next week he will initiate a bipartisan, special task force with subpoena
authority to investigate the attempted assassination of President Trump and the security failures that preceded the attack. Speaker Johnson also called for Director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle to resign from her post. Click here to watch Speaker Johnson’s full interview
Below are excerpts from the interview:
On the new task force: We are going to move quickly. I’ll be setting up on Monday a task force, a special task force within the House, and the reason we’re going to do it that way is because that is a more precise strike. It goes quicker, there’s not a lot of the procedural hurdles, and we’ll have subpoena authority for that task force as well. It’ll be comprised of Republicans and Democrats to get down to the bottom of this quickly, so the American people can get the answers that they deserve.
On the response so far from Biden Administration officials: Since the assassination attempt, within hours, I was on the phone with Secretary Mayorkas at Homeland Security. He did not have satisfactory answers at that time. I’ve since spoken to leaders at the FBI, the Director of National Intelligence. There are real questions, let’s just put it that way. The answers have not been forthcoming. I think they’re gathering data. We’re going to do it as well. We must have accountability for this. It was inexcusable. Obviously, there were security lapses. You don’t have to be a special ops expert to understand that. And we’re going to get down to the bottom of it quickly.
On the failures of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle: I’m going to call for her resignation as well. Look, I think it’s inexcusable. Just beyond the classified parts, the things that we all understand, her explanation to the media that there was a slant on the roof, so there was safety concern, it doesn’t wash. And I think she’s shown what her priorities are. I don’t know her personally, but we’ll be asking lots of questions.
Source: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson
