Inside the Republican bid to set up a 9/11 commission to look into the Trump shooting… and the theories on what they think inspired the attempted assassination

Rep. Derrick Van Orden is demanding that the House create an emergency committee to investigate the attempted assassination of Trump, blaming the effort on the rhetoric of the media and Democrats.

‘I hope [the shooting] “The mood in the press is changing,” Van Orden said in an interview with DailyMail.com during the Republican National Convention (RNC) in his home state of Milwaukee.

“For over a decade, the press, in partnership with the Democratic Party, the left-wing Democrats that have now become mainstream, has been saying for over a decade that Trump is a Nazi. He is Hitler. He is a fascist, he is going to destroy democracy. He is against all American values. President Biden said it is time to target President Trump.”

Van Orden continued: ‘Put yourself in the shoes of that 20-year-old who is trying to kill him. Since he was 11 or 12, he’s been hearing all these vicious lies about the president.’

“What else could compel a 20-year-old to climb onto a roof, knowing that he will surely be killed if he shoots the president, other than the fact that he has been radicalized by the left wing of the Democratic Party, which has become mainstream and has been projected onto him by the media since he was 11?”

While the shooting prompted bipartisan condemnation and calls to tone down the rhetoric, some Republicans were quick to point out that liberal exaggerations were about placing blame on Trump.

“Democrats and liberals in the media have called Trump a fascist. They’ve compared him to Hitler,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., posted on X.

“This is not an unfortunate incident,” Scott’s message continued. “This was an assassination attempt by a madman, inspired by the rhetoric of the radical left.”

The now deceased shooter was a 20-year-old Pennsylvania resident, a registered Republican who had made a small donation to Biden’s campaign.

Van Orden said the Secret Service had “failed” that day in Butler, Pennsylvania, but he refrained from firing anyone.

“If your only job is to make sure the former president doesn’t get shot, and the former president gets shot, then clearly there’s a problem: You’ve failed in your primary mission.”

Van Orden said he pleaded with Speaker Mike Johnson “not to handle this the way Congress normally does.”

“There are actually four different committees that have jurisdiction. I don’t want a bunch of committees doing their own thing.”

“We need to have a special committee that is made up of members of those committees and other members who have expertise in that area. We need to get this together very quickly. And it needs to be completely open. That means the American people need to see everything we do, every person we talk to, every piece of information we have, so they understand what the hell is going on.”

Van Orden continued: ‘Imagine that 20-year-old trying to kill him. Since he was 11 or 12, he’s been hearing all these vicious lies about the president.’

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) joined the call for a select commission, similar to the one that took place after 9/11, to investigate the assassination.

“As a former SEAL who set up perimeters for American and European heads of state, and as a former protected party, I can say without hesitation that the Select Committee to investigate the security failures and attempted assassination of President Trump must move forward. While other agencies conduct their investigations, it is critical to the integrity of the investigation and the trust of the American people that a committee comprised of select members of the House, Senate, White House, and Supreme Court be given the same — if not greater — rights and access to information as the 9/11 Commission,” he wrote on X.

‘Many Americans rightly have no confidence in the same agency that is investigating Trump politically and is harassing him with the investigation into his near-death situation.’

On Monday night, Oversight Chairman James Comer demanded on behalf of his committee a list of all law enforcement officers on the scene at the time of the shooting, all Secret Service audio and video recordings, all communications between agents and more.

Comer also revealed that the Secret Service rejected a request for a private meeting with lawmakers on Tuesday. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is expected to appear before the committee on Monday.