Donalds on Trump Assassination Attempt Aftermath: This is 'What Leadership Requires'

U.S. Representative and potential VP pick Byron Donalds (R-FL) appeared on Fox News in Milwaukee just hours before the commencement of the Republican National Convention and less than 48 hours removed from the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump’s (R) life.

On Saturday a gunman shot and nearly killed the former president at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. President Trump’s right ear was pierced by a bullet, millimeters from an even more catastrophic event. Sadly, an audience member was killed, and two spectators were critically injured. Secret Service killed the gunman.

When asked about the upcoming Congressional hearing surrounding the performance of the Secret Service that is set to take place next week, Rep. Donalds said he expects a bipartisan meeting.

“I anticipate is going to be a very bipartisan hearing. Listen, obviously, we're talking about the assassination attempt of former President Trump. But it's bigger than that. It could be President Biden, President Obama, President Bush, President Clinton. We have to make sure that whether it is the future work before the President even gets to that area, the actual security protocols around that. It’s not going to be good enough to accept responsibility and ‘we’ll do better,’” said Rep. Donalds. “As far as I'm concerned. We need the names of which agents were doing the advanced work. Who spotted what, what are the timelines to really get to what happened here, so you can truly make sure something like this doesn't occur again, or at the very minimum that the Secret Service on an operational basis step by step is making sure that you contain an area as best as you can.”

Moreover, when asked about President Trump changing his speech following the attempt on his life, Rep. Donalds said his ability to quickly pivot is what “leadership requires” in moments such as these.

“Look, it's going to be a quick change, but that's what leadership requires. It is important now, not just here at the Republican National Convention, but frankly, members on both sides of the aisle, people in media, etc. that we move forward in a posture of uniting this country. We have our disagreements. That's fine. We disagree as families, we disagree in businesses … But we cannot have a situation where you have people in our country decide to take lives into their own hands. And if it means that we have to be much more thoughtful about how we go about our business, even though we have major disagreements in this country,” said Rep. Donalds. “That's what leadership requires. I think President Trump recognizes that immediately, obviously, and that's why I think you're seeing the speech rewrites, and I think even the tone from a lot of speakers this week is going to be something a little bit different than probably what people thought a week ago.”

President Trump will announce his running mate today, per Reuters.