theories like these aren't just bumping up the thermostat
a few degrees, kind of turn it on the gas
and trying to light a match. Joining
us now, Republican Congresswoman Laurel Lee of Florida. She's on the bipartisan
task force to investigate the attempted
assassination of Donald Trump. She's also a former judge
and federal prosecutor. She serves on the House
Judiciary Committee as well. Congresswoman, thanks so much
for coming on the show. Appreciate it. Do you think that my monologue
here is being unfair in my concern
about these conspiracy theories? Well, I think what you're hearing is
a tremendous amount of distrust. And I will say, you know, some
of that is predicated, in fact, we had just a few months ago,
Democrats in Congress calling for an end
to any Secret Service protection for President Trump. And the rhetoric is
so harsh against him. So. So I absolutely agree
that I think it's constructive at this point. What we need to do is exactly
what this task force has been has been given
the responsibility of doing. We need to get to the facts. We nd to talk to all of the witnesses, the local law enforcement, the people
who were at the rally, the Secret Service agents
who were involved and get the information. Because when there is a lack
of transparency, that's when everyone that's
when Americans are left to try
to draw their own conclusions. And that's what we're seeing
here, is a lack of information. It's impossible to understand how a failure this
critical could have happened. And so what we need to do is as quickly as possible
and as fairly as possible, get Americans
the answers that they need. I think you're right
about the lack of transparency. It does lead to things
like this. But. But do you think it's possible
that the secrets Service or Christopher Wray
orchestrated an assassination plot on President Trump? Well, one thing I'll say,
as you know from my years
as a federal prosecutor is that sometimes
people will surprise you. And the whole purpose of an
investigation is that you don't reach a conclusion
before you start. You go the opposite direction. You let the facts and the
evidence show you what happened. And there's no. Doubt
what we're doing. And this and this group, this group
of members of the task force. We have former law enforcement. We have former prosecutors. We have former members
of the military. So this is a group
that is very well equipped to start from the ground up,
figure out what happened. I know last week
I had the opportunity to go to Butler, Pennsylvania, and seeing the site itself
was incredible, impactful. Anyone who's been
there will tell you it's a very small location.
There were not very many buildings
that needed to be secured. So the depth of this failure
is very clear and it is important that we get to the bottom
because they're still out there. President
Trump is having a rally today. The vice president will be having rallies
in coming days as well. We need to be sure that when they are out there
continuing to campaign, that Secret Service understands what went wrong here
and can keep them protected. But I think you'd agree,
as a former judge
and a former federal prosecutor, that making accusations
against people or entities without any evidence to support
it is not where you want to start. Right. Well, sure.
That's not what we do. You know what? What we are going to do is start with the evidence
and see where that takes us. But I think the concern,
you know, the level of fear and concern is is really coming from
a place of it being just so hard to understand how something like
this could have happened and how grave this experience
was and how important it is that we ensure
that it never happens again. So I know our task force,
we come in where
where the evidence will take us. That is our that is our job to make sure
that we get those answers and get them
to the American people. And I think we are uniquely
equipped to do that because of the resources and the ability
that we have to bring all of the interested parties
together to work. Well, look, we're
counting on your task force. We're counting on you guys
because this is important. I don't care where you stand
on the political landscape. It is critical
for all the reasons that you've laid out
for us to get these answers. I think maybe you're
a little more forgiving than I am of those
who are already pointing fingers without having evidence
to back it up. I would rather them speak the way you're speaking,
which is let's see where this takes us. The lack of transparency
is getting us into trouble, then saying, Oh, yeah, you know, putting up a big picture
of Christopher Wray or suggesting that the Secret Service
were behind it when they have no
evidence to support it. But well, certainly we we want to have faith in our institutions
of government and our federal law enforcement
officers. We need them and our country
to be to be following the oaths they take
and keeping our country safe. So certainly, as we go
through this investigation, we will be expecting
accountability. We will be expecting answers. But absolutely, we are
we are going to follow the facts, follow the law as as we
as as we go forward.