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Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania was in the audience with his family and 3 of his grandchildren, filming.
By Lucas Broadwater
Reporting from the Capitol
Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa. , was with his family, along with three of his grandchildren, in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a would-be assassin opened fire on former President Donald J. Trump, a few centimeters away from killing him.
They heard the gunshots, saw the blood and witnessed the panic that gripped the crowd as two other people were seriously injured and one man, Corey Comperatore, a firefighter who died protecting his family, died.
Then Mr. Kelly’s 9-year-old grandson Charles asked him a question: “Grandpa, why should you shoot President Trump?”
“I said, ‘Charles, I just can’t answer that. I don’t know,” Kelly recalls. “He says, ‘This is crazy. ‘” And I think: here’s a nine-year-old boy who witnessed all this. This is something you shouldn’t have witnessed and it’s something you’ll take with you.
Now Mr. Kelly is tasked with answering key questions about what happened on July 13, the day of the shooting. President Mike Johnson named him chairman of a bipartisan task force that will lead the congressional investigation into the shooting. The new executive organization will assume leadership of House investigations.
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