
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, is threatening the American people “will be shocked” and “appalled” at an upcoming interim report on attempts to assassinate former President Donald Trump and security lapses of the U.S. Secret Service.
The report will list major lapses by those charged with protecting the GOP presidential nominee, Blumenthal said.
During a closed-door meeting with senators on Thursday, Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe also updated lawmakers on the investigation. The reasons behind the failed assassination attempt, if any lapses in security led to the incident were picked up for discussion at the meeting.
“I think the American people are going to be shocked, astonished and appalled by what we will report to them about the failures by the Secret Service in this assassination attempt on the former president,” Blumenthal told Fox News. “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.”
Blumenthal declined to offer details about what was said at the meeting, and other lawmakers have also been careful not to stoke public confidence in the report.
The committee action in the GOP-run Senate is not expected to result in a final report, said Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, top Democrat on the Homeland panel.
“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,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., 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.”
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) said lawmakers want to make sure the public understands that the report will be done in a bipartisan fashion.
“So he’s making the commitment to, you know, provide more information,” Johnson said. “But we’re hoping to get this preliminary report out before this work period. So again, we’re on pretty tight time constraints. But again, it’s important people realize we are dedicated to a bipartisan product.”
Trump was shot on the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, leading to more questions about the security and communication failures by U.S. Secret Service personnel.
That interim report is expected to be released by lawmakers soon, and more details are anticipated in the weeks ahead as investigators continue their work.