Task force on attempted Trump assassination sets date for first shooting site visit

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FIRST ON FOX: The bipartisan House task force investigating the attempted assassination of former President Trump is set to visit the site of the shooting later this month.

Task force Chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa., spoke with Fox News Digital a day after the panel formally kicked off its probe into the deadly July 13 event, where a 20-year-old gunman opened fire during Trump's speech in Butler, Pennsylvania, and killed one rally attendee.

The Butler visit, happening the week of Aug. 26, will mark the first time the seven House Republicans and six House Democrats appointed to the task force will meet in person to advance their probe. Kelly said the goal was to have all 13 lawmakers attend.

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Republican candidate Donald Trump, seen with blood on his face, is surrounded by Secret Service agents after shots were fired at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show, July 13, 2024. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)

"There are other members who have never been there, and so we want them to see the actual physical assets that were there that day. We won't be able to exactly view the crime scene because it's all been torn down and moved away, but we will have enough personal time on the grounds so people can look out and say, ‘So there's the roof that the shooter was on,’ and ‘This is approximately where the podium was set up for former President of the United States,’" Kelly explained.

He said they would also meet with local officials while there, something Kelly himself has already done.

The longtime Pennsylvania Republican lawmaker represents the area where the shooting took place and was at the rally with his family that day.

"I thought the president was dead," Kelly said matter-of-factly when recalling the initial horrifying moments. 

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Rep. Mike Kelly is the chairman of the task force. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

He also said it brought back memories of living through the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963 – and Kelly vowed Americans would see more transparency now than they did then.

"To this day, there's still people – we never really found out what happened that day, and I don't want that to ever happen again. We’re going to come up with an answer before the end of the year, and working around election schedules and everything else, we're still going to get the answers the American people need to have," he said.

Part of that work will also include public hearings when Congress is back in session after Labor Day weekend, Kelly said.

"We'll try to have as many representatives of law enforcement groups there, if people have any questions," he said of the end-of-August site visit. "And then we'll expand on it when we get back into Washington, DC, we will hold public hearings on what it is that we know."

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Law enforcement officers gather at the campaign rally site for former President Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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Kelly and task force ranking member Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., began their formal investigation on Monday with a pair of letters sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas and acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, respectively, asking for all records they have sent or plan to send to Congress on the shooting.

Kelly, a native of the area, said he had concerns about the rally location's security even before the event took place – but said those concerns went unheeded.

Another main concern of his is the apparent lack of communication between law enforcement groups monitoring security that day, Kelly said.

"My concern was it wasn't the right site. And now, in the aftermath, are you telling me that all of these people, there was no coordination, no ability to communicate, and there wasn't knowledge beforehand that we didn't have the ability to communicate?" Kelly said. "Somebody didn't do something at some level."