For Immediate Release
September 16, 2024
Contact: Taylor Haulsee
“He is not going to stop fighting for the American people, and it was really encouraging for us visit with him right after that happened.”
WASHINGTON — This morning, Speaker Johnson joined Fox & Friends to discuss his meeting with President Trump following the second failed assassination attempt yesterday, the secret service response, and he provided an update on the task force investigating the Butler, PA shooting.
Click here to watch the full interview
On meeting with President Trump:
My wife Kelly and I were on the way to Mar-a-Lago when the shooting occurred, and so we were delayed a little bit because they shut down all the traffic. But then we arrived there about the time that President Trump did and we spent about three hours with him. He was in very good spirits, as you might expect. That’s who he is. He’s so resilient, and we were really grateful to see him.
We’ll all be talking about this for quite some time. There’s no leader in the history of America that has been so attacked and has remained so strong and so resilient. He’s one of a kind. He is not going to stop fighting for the American people, and it was really encouraging for us to sit and visit with him right after that happened.
On the Secret Service response:
I got a briefing from the Acting Director of the Secret Service, Ron Rowe within 90 minutes of the event. I was actually sitting with President Trump when he called. We listened to that in detail. And what I understand happened is that those agents that were with him yesterday saw that barrel of that gun between the bushes on a golf course. I mean, you know, that’s a difficult thing to spot. Thankfully, they did. But unlike in Butler, they did not pause. They immediately pulled their weapons and fired. I think that’s why this guy, the suspect, the shooter, threw the gun in the in the bushes and ran.
Had they not been there? Had they not acted so quickly and so decisively? We might be having a different conversation. Today, President Trump needs the most coverage of anyone. He’s the most attacked. He’s the most threatened, even probably more than when he was in the Oval Office. So, we are demanding in the house that he have every asset available.
On the assassination attempt task force:
There are hearings coming up this month for that Task Force, and of course, the Senate has its own Homeland Security Committee looking into it as well. There’s going to be reports and recommendations coming forward, and Congress will act swiftly. We need accountability. We must demand that this job is being done. I think there are some, some really patriotic, great people working in the Secret Service, but it’s the leadership. We have no faith. I have no faith in Secretary Mayorkas, Department of Homeland Security. He’s an abject failure.
We expect them [PA State Police] to turn over the evidence. I’ll be I’ll be shocked if they don’t, and we’ll take appropriate action, but it takes some time to do a deliberate investigation. There will be hearings, I think, not this week but next in our task force, and a report due by the end of that same week. And so more and more of these answers will be coming out, the final report due shortly thereafter. So good work is being done. There are some extraordinary members of Congress working on it around the clock, and we have to do that. It’s a top priority for the American people.
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