‘Who’s In Charge?’: Lou Correa Presses FBI’s Chris Wray Following Trump Assassination Attempt

2 months ago

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray about the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

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Transcript

00:00And Director Wray, welcome again to this committee, and I want to thank you and your agents for

00:05the good job you're doing to protect Americans. Earlier this week, I was part of the group that

00:12went out to visit Butler, Pennsylvania, Homeland Security members. I agree with my colleagues that

00:19have said violence has no part in our democracy, and I trust you will investigate the events

00:26surrounding July 13th thoroughly. I'm going to ask you a question. I hope you keep it in mind

00:34as your investigation proceeds, which is, who's in charge? Who's in charge at a campaign rally,

00:42setting it up? Secret service or a campaign? And I ask this question because when I was there,

00:51I had a couple of law enforcement individuals alluding to that question as well.

00:57They gave me an example. He said,

01:02if a secret service says you need to set up a line of dump trucks behind the stage

01:08to serve to protect the candidate, and the campaign says that's bad optics,

01:16who ends up winning the debate? So my question is, who's in charge? And as you investigate

01:23this crime scene, I hope you ask the locally elected officials. I spoke to a county supervisor,

01:32local police and sheriff. They all had information they wanted us to know, to relay. We just didn't

01:40have the opportunity to sit down and talk to them. There was a lot of concern that they weren't

01:47given enough time to prepare for this rally. They thought there were things that could have

01:52been done better. And ultimately, what I keep thinking, what I keep coming back to is the

01:59question, who's in charge at these rallies? I think it's an important one because we have an

02:06election right around the corner. Pennsylvania, Butler, these areas, battleground states around

02:12the country will continue to be areas where our candidates, both sides, will show up. And the

02:20threats will continue to be there. So I hope, Director Wray, that you'll keep that statement

02:26in mind as you continue to investigate this crime scene. Well, I appreciate the question.

02:32I will tell you that we've conducted well over 400 interviews, but we have many more still to

02:38conduct. And as is not unusual in investigation, I'm sure there will be situations where we have

02:43to go back to people we've already interviewed with follow-up questions. And our interviews

02:49cover a wide range of people. I do think it's important to make sure that the committee and

02:54the American people understand the scope of our investigation versus the scope of others.

03:00Our investigation is focused on the shooter and his attack. There is, of course, and I understand

03:07completely why, two separate, there are two separate reviews, one by the DHS Inspector General

03:15and the other by this outside independent panel that's been announced that are focused on the

03:20security posture, the adequacy of the security posture at the rally, Secret Service decision

03:26making and actions and things like that. And so I certainly understand why there are all those

03:30questions. But those are, those are in scope of those two other reviews. And of course, whatever,

03:36you know, Congress chooses to do. Our investigation, though, because of our interviews of people who are

03:44on the scene will relate to that in some ways. And we're going to share whatever we learn that's

03:48relevant with those other reviews. Director Wray, my last minute that I have, I'm going to flip quickly to

03:54your good job resources. Earlier this year in Appropriations Committee, you testified that you

04:01were for 2024, your budget was 500 million below what you needed to sustain your 2023 efforts.

04:12A few minutes ago, you talked about foreign terrorists. Last few weeks, I know,

04:17information has emerged. That information came from FISA information that was able to be collected

04:25overseas on these possible terrorist threats. What we have here today is a domestic terrorist,

04:33what looks to be a lone wolf. Your statements, there's nothing really there that would have

04:41tipped anybody off to this individual. Is that what I'm hearing from you? Well, I don't know that

04:48I go quite that far, because we're still investigating a lot related to the shooter.

04:54It does appear so far that we're seeing less in my six seconds, I would just say,

04:59I would ask that you let us know what resources you need to protect the American public and our

05:05candidates in our democratic system. I would appreciate the question. I would just say this.

05:10We are in, as I've said consistently today, and for quite some time now, we are in an elevated

05:16threat environment, covering a wide range of threats. The FBI is central to protecting

05:21the American people from those threats. State and local law enforcement, who depend on us every day,

05:30rely on us for all sorts of services, databases, forensic support, training, I could go on and on

05:36and a lot of those departments, unlike the FBI, have had a hard time recruiting. This is not a

05:43time to pull back on our funding, because we're going to leave our brothers and sisters in state

05:48and local law enforcement twisting in the wind, and then by extension, the American people,

05:53we're all collectively sworn to protect. Thank you, and Mr. Chair, I yield.

‘Who’s In Charge?’: Lou Correa Presses FBI’s Chris Wray Following Trump Assassination Attempt

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