WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Congressional lawmakers held hearings to investigate the shooting at former President Donald Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which is currently under investigation by law enforcement officials as an attempted assassination.
The same week in Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered remarks to a joint meeting of Congress vowing “total victory” against Hamas. Vice President Kamala Harris narrowed the polling gap against Trump, and the group Nuns on the Bus launched their 2024 bus tour.
Cheatle resigns as Secret Service director
Kimberley Cheatle, who was director of the U.S. Secret Service, resigned from that post July 23 after a tense House hearing the previous day on the attempted assassination of Trump.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called on Cheatle to resign, citing security failures amid the incident, in which a gunman was able to access a roof, from which he fired at least eight rounds before he was killed by counter-snipers, initial reports indicate.
At a tense hearing of the House Oversight Committee the day before her resignation, lawmakers called Cheatle’s testimony evasive and incomplete, with the committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and its top Democrat and ranking member, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., jointly calling for her resignation.
“Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures,” the pair wrote to her in a letter. “In the middle of a presidential election, the Committee and the American people demand serious institutional accountability and transparency that you are not providing. We call on you to resign as Director as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust of a truly concerned Congress and the American people.”
Despite telling lawmakers that she intended to remain in her post, Cheatle resigned the next day amid growing pressure.
“In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director,” Cheatle wrote in her resignation letter.
On July 24, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee, shedding some new light on the investigation, including his disclosure to lawmakers that the gunman’s online history showed he searched “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?” a reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
That search, Wray said, appeared to take place the same day the gunman registered for the Trump rally.
Netanyahu addresses joint meeting of Congress
In comments to a joint meeting of Congress on July 24, Netanyahu urged lawmakers to provide more bipartisan support to Israel amid its ongoing conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as some lawmakers grow more concerned about Palestinian civilian casualties as Israel continues its military response to the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack by Hamas.
Netanyahu called the Hamas attacks, “a day that will forever live in infamy,” drawing parallels to the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
“Our enemies are your enemies. Our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory,” he said.
Netanyahu, who spoke just days after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, thanked the president for his “half century of friendship to Israel.” He also praised Trump’s role brokering the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
At some protests of that speech near the Capitol, some participants burned an American flag and sprayed pro-Hamas graffiti at Washington’s Union Station, located near the Capitol complex. Harris, who did not attend Netanyahu’s speech but met with him the following day, issued a statement condemning that action.
Harris narrows polling gap
Harris narrowed the polling gap with Trump as she appears poised to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll, conducted after Biden ended his reelection bid.
The poll found Trump leading Harris 48% to 47% among likely voters in a head-to-head match, however, when third-party candidates are included, both candidates were tied at 42%.
“It’s a new election,” Don Levy, director of the Siena College Research Institute, said in a statement. “Vice-President Kamala Harris now trails former President Donald Trump by 1 point in a two-way national race when three weeks ago Trump led by six over President Joe Biden.”
Levy said the poll, “taken immediately after Biden dropped out of the race shows Harris opening up a 21-point lead among young voters, previously a Biden weakness while Trump grabs a 5-point advantage among older voters, a group that Biden had led by three.”
Nuns on the Bus lanches 2024 tour
Nuns on the Bus, a project by the Catholic lobbying group Network, launched its 2024 election tour to promote the group’s “equally sacred” voter checklist. At an event July 23 in Washington, bus riders — including Catholic sisters, coalition partners, Network staff and members of Congress — urged supporters to be multi-issue voters.
“I am here because I support Pope Francis’ call for Catholics to be multi-issue voters,” Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, D-Ill., said at the event. “My social justice values are deeply connected to my faith and upbringing as a Catholic. That’s why I joined Nuns on the Bus & Friends, to reaffirm our commitment to the right to seek asylum, as well as health care, climate, economic and racial justice.”
At their fall 2023 general assembly, the U.S. bishops voted to approve supplements to the bishops’ teaching document “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” which consisted of a new introductory note that affirmed the bishops’ prior designation of abortion as “our pre-eminent priority” because “it directly attacks our most vulnerable and voiceless brothers and sisters and destroys more than a million lives per year in our country alone.” But the bishops also said, “Other grave threats to the life and dignity of the human person include euthanasia, gun violence, terrorism, the death penalty, and human trafficking.”
But sometimes Catholic voters wonder how to apply those principles at the ballot box. Network was among the Catholic groups that published a voter guide, as did Catholic Conscience, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @kgscanlon.