Dem Sen. Blumenthal says Americans will be ‘shocked’ and ‘stunned’ by report of attempted assassination of Trump

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) predicted that Americans will be “shocked” and “stunned” when lawmakers release their interim report on the attempted assassination of former President Trump and the security failures of those involved in protecting the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.

Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe gave senators an update on the investigation into the botched assassination during a closed-door meeting on Thursday.

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“I think the American people will be shocked, stunned and appalled by what we’re going to report to them about the failures of the Secret Service in this attempted assassination of the former president,” Blumenthal told Fox News. “But I think they should also be shocked and appalled by the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to be more forthcoming, to be as forthcoming and honest as they should be with them in terms of providing information.”

Blumenthal did not go into detail about what he learned from Thursday’s meeting. Despite his statements, other lawmakers declined to comment on how the public might respond to their report.

“It’s coming out soon. And it’s just going to 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’re hoping that once this report comes out, we can get the additional information that’s needed to have a complete account of what happened, as well as steps of what we need to do going forward to make sure this never happens again.”

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Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said lawmakers want to make sure the public understands the report will be done in a bipartisan manner. He said there was some frustration expressed Thursday about Rowe.

“So he’s committed to, you know, providing more information,” Johnson said. “But we hope to have this preliminary report out before this work period. So again, we’re on pretty tight timelines. But again, it’s important that people realize that we’re committed to a bipartisan product.”

The Secret Service has come under intense scrutiny over security and communications lapses leading up to the July 13 shooting death of Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Assistant Director Michael Plati of the agency’s Office of Protective Operations, who led the division responsible for planning the protection of Trump, President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and others, ends his tenure there on Friday, his 27th anniversary at the agency.

According to the Secret Service, Plati was not asked to retire or resign, though sources at the highest levels of the internal investigation told Fox News he was encouraged to retire early.

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