After two failed efforts to kill former President Donald Trump, more and more people are calling for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be more open.
Lawmakers from both parties are upset that Mayorkas’s Dept. of Homeland Security, which is home to the Secret Service, has not shared enough information about the attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Because of the arrest of a possible gunman outside of Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, golf club a week ago, these worries have grown.
Since the second attempt on the president’s life in Florida on July 15, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe has informed the press and politicians. However, Mayorkas’s low profile and what people see as his department’s unwillingness to hand over certain papers have led to criticism from both parties.
“Where has Mayorkas been? Mayorkas has been in charge of this terrible border issue. Ever since the attempt on President Trump’s life this past weekend, I haven’t heard him say a word,” Speaker of the House of Representatives Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Newsmax on Friday. “I haven’t heard him once. And he’s in charge of keeping the country safe. He is the secretary, and the Secret Service works for that agency. For crying out loud, where has he been?”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who is the head of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations told reporters on Capitol Hill last week that the DHS wouldn’t give the Senate documents, witnesses, and other evidence, even though the Senate had the power to do so.
“I am so angry that the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t done anything about it that I may explode. In many ways, I think it’s the same thing as stonewalling,” Blumenthal told reporters Tuesday.
Blumenthal went on, “I’m willing and able to use the subpoena power if I need to get information from the Department of Homeland Security. We’ve told them over and over that we’re upset. It makes me very disappointed.”
Each chamber is looking into the shooting tries at the same time. In July, Mark Green (R-TN), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, asked Mayorkas to bring in papers relating to the Butler case.
The top Democrat on the House task force looking into both attempts on Mayorkas’s life, Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), defended him on Wednesday, saying that he had “seen no evidence of any stonewalling by any of the agencies we’ve worked with.”
At the same time, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a Republican on the task group, said that the Secret Service has been “open about its mistakes” but that the Department of Justice is to blame. The FBI is in charge of the government probe into the shooting at Butler.
