Rep. Dave Joyce appointed to task force investigating Trump shooting

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, was among the 13 lawmakers appointed to the bipartisan House task force investigating the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

In a rare sign of unity, House members voted unanimously, 416-0, to create the task force, which includes six Democrats and seven Republicans.

Joyce was chosen as one of the Republicans. The former prosecutor has a deep background of handling official investigations. As a member of the House Ethics Committee, Joyce led the investigation that resulted in the expulsion of then-Rep. George Santos from the House.

“I was honored that Speaker Johnson, put me on that task force,” Joyce said. “I appreciate the fact that he had confidence in my ability to do a long-term investigation like this and to make sure it’s something that the American people are going to be proud.”

Several officials have already testified about  the security lapses that allowed a gunman to take a clear shot at Trump, including former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle. Her failure to answer basic questions about those security failures at an Oversight Committee hearing prompted both Republicans and Democrats to demand that she resign, which she did the next day.

 “I don’t think Director Cheadle’s, testimony before our committee was very worthwhile. So you’d probably have been better off staying home than coming in and doing what she did, because that seemed to infuriate a lot of folks,” Joyce said.

The task force will draw on additional testimony given by officials in the weeks following the assassination attempt. The panel also has the power to subpoena other officials.

Joyce said protecting presidential candidates was especially important heading into the November election.

“Presidential protection details have to be not-fail missions. They can’t afford to panic,” he said. “And so it’s important to make sure that if there’s an issue with training, if there’s an issue with scope of duties, whatever it is, we get to the bottom of it and fix that and make sure it never happens again.”

The task force’s final report is expected to detail what went wrong in the minutes and hours before the shooting, as well as lay out recommendations to prevent such a security failure from happening again.

The findings will be released Dec. 13.