Republicans are demanding the removal of a top Democrat from a congressional task force that will investigate the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus in a statement on Wednesday demanded that an upcoming task force not include Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and further believe he should be removed as the ranking member of the committee.
Earlier this year, Thompson had introduced a bill that would ban Secret Service protection for those convicted of a felony, presumably as a way to target Trump who was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
“In April, Rep. Bennie Thompson launched an effort with other radical progressive Democrats to deny Secret Service protection to President Trump – legislation that he continues to defend even after the attempted assassination on July 13,” read the statement from the Freedom Caucus.
HFC Official Position: “Rep. Bennie Thompson Must Not Be Allowed To Soil
Another Investigation” pic.twitter.com/gO7KpADaxY— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) July 24, 2024
“We therefore urge the removal of Rep. Thompson as the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security,” the conservative group continued. “Similarly, his actions should invalidate Rep. Thompson from serving on the task force to investigate the attempted assassination of President Trump. Americans cannot trust that he will be an unbiased arbiter of the facts in the effort to get to the bottom of the greatest failure of the Secret Service in more than three decades.”
In his defense, a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that Thompson “has served the Congress and the country admirably, including as Chair of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol and the Homeland Security Committee.”
“Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats will not be lectured by election-denying, conspiracy peddling, anti-freedom extreme MAGA Republicans about any matter concerning the American people,” the spokesperson, Christie Stephenson, said. “Pipe down.”
Thompson, who led the House Select January 6th Committee that investigated the Capitol riot, told The Hill that he wasn’t even looking to be part of the task force.
“I don’t even want to be on it,” he claimed. “I’ve never expressed an interest.”
The bipartisan task force with authority to issue subpoenas was announced Monday by Jeffries and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and will reportedly include seven Republicans and six Democrats.
Thompson defended his bill during a congressional hearing, saying, “Republicans have made a lot of hay about the bill, saying it’s about former President Trump and would take away his security — that just is not true.”
(Video Credit: Forbes Breaking News)
“The bill doesn’t mention former Trump, President Trump, and it would not have affected security at this tragic event,” Thompson said.“The bill talks about any Secret Service protectee who is convicted of a felony and sentenced to serve jail time — and it does not take away security.”
“The bill makes clear that when a protectee is sentenced and remanded to the custody of prison officials, the Secret Service is able to hand off the prisoner in an orderly fashion and that Secret Service agents aren’t forced to become correctional officers, too,” the Democrat insisted. “That’s the legislation.”
But Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) warned Thompson about “how rhetoric and the things we do, messaging bills that we do, shapes discussion and impacts people.”
“Prison isn’t necessarily a safer place — you can ask Mr. Epstein’s family about that,” Green said, referring to deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. “To suggest that somehow you’d have the security necessary in a prison I think is just not an accurate statement.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he did not think Thompson would be a “good choice” for the task force.
NEWS: Speaker Johnson tells me he doesn’t think it would be a “good choice” for Bennie Thompson to serve on this panel, but he says he talked to Leader Jeffries about it & doesn’t think it’s “gonna be an issue.” https://t.co/vZHhllF2Cm
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) July 24, 2024
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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