After third assassination attempt, debate grows over whether Trump attack warrants another investigation
When a bullet grazed President Donald Trump's ear, Congress immediately launched investigations into how a gunman was able to pull the trigger. Two attempts later, and lawmakers are now less interested in taking swift action.
There have been few calls to hold hearings or launch probes into the latest incident as conspiracies swirl online after the third alleged assassination attempt over the weekend at the White House Correspondent's Association Dinner.
"I just happen to think it's — for the most part, it's a waste of time," Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told Fox News Digital. "Security held. The guy didn't get through. Wasn't even close."
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Top lawmakers on the House Oversight and Senate Judiciary committees met with Secret Service Director Sean Curran this week for briefings, but have so far stopped short of calling for hearings or full-scale investigations.
Two years ago, when a gunman tried and failed to assassinate Trump on the campaign trail in Butler, Pennsylvania, two major bipartisan investigations were launched to address failures by the Secret Service and other agencies and find out how a gunman got so close to ending Trump's life.
And in the case of Ryan Routh, who was caught with a rifle in another attempt against Trump while he was golfing at his club in Florida just months after the shooting at Butler, lawmakers folded that investigation in with their ongoing inquiry into the first attack.
Following the weekend shooting at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Dinner, where a gunman was foiled while attempting to enter a packed ballroom where Trump, his Cabinet, Vice President JD Vance and several journalists sat, lawmakers aren’t rushing to figure out what happened this time.
Trump's appearance on Saturday marks the first time he decided to go to the dinner while serving as president — he has been twice in the past. He also promised at a press conference after the dinner was canceled to reschedule the event within the next 30 days.
The alleged shooter, Cole Allen, bolted past a security check point with a rifle, handgun and several knives on his person. But the Secret Service was able to neutralize the suspect before he ever entered the ballroom where Trump was sitting.
Still, some Republicans are demanding that the incident be given a thorough review, or at least a hearing.
"I mean, this is the third assassination attempt on the life of the president in two years," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital. "You know, we need to look carefully at all of the procedures and protocols."
Hawley wants Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Rand Paul, R-Ky., to hold a hearing on presidential security in the aftermath of the shooting.
The very same committee led an investigation into the Butler attempt and determined that the shooting was preventable and caused by a series of failures in security protocol, planning and funding, among several others.
The bipartisan investigation landed on more than 40 recommendations for actions that should be taken in the future to prevent a repeat.
Paul didn’t appear ready to rush into a hearing on the matter. He told Fox News Digital that lawmakers investigated that attempt for over a year and believed that the probe "arrived at several bits of wisdom, insight, and advice."
"I think there will be items from this that need to be reviewed and made better," Paul said. "We're gonna get a briefing from the Secret Service on what to learn from this attempt, and we'll decide after that if we need to do anything further. But absolutely, the Secret Service needs to investigate and see what they can do to make the president safer."
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Like Hawley, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., has several questions about how a gunman was able to blow past security measures and fears what could come next.
"When is it going to be a suicide bomber? When is it going to be an army of people behind the one person that went in and blow up the whole building? Look, that's where we are, and I have questions about the three assassination attempts," Norman told Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, there is a growing wave of skepticism online about whether the latest attempt on Trump’s life was even real. Many users are claiming that the incident was "staged."
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital that "some of these people need… serious help."
Moreno was comfortable that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles would lead a "necessary and important conversation" about the correspondents’ dinner incident, but rebuked any attempt by Democrats to push for answers.
"If there's a Democrat having that conversation, you can shut the f--- up given that they won't fund [the Department of Homeland Security]," Moreno said.