A bipartisan congressional Task Force has been investigating the attempted assassination of President-elect Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in mid-July, as well as a second attempt on Trump's life at his golf course in Palm Beach, Florida in mid-September.

The Task Force released its final report on Tuesday and it was damning in its documentation of multiple failures in terms of the "planning, execution, and leadership" of the U.S. Secret Service in keeping Trump safe from harm, Breitbart reported.

That report also offered dozens of recommendations for various reforms that Congress believes will help the Secret Service mitigate and prevent similar incidents in the future.

Secret Service "failures" exposed

In a Tuesday press release, the bipartisan Task Force -- led by Chairman Mike Kelly (R-PA) and ranking member Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) -- announced the unanimous approval of its final report which "highlights significant failures in the planning, execution, and leadership of the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners."

The report also includes "37 actionable recommendations" that address not only the "security failures" on July 13 that resulted in a shooter gaining access to a nearby rooftop to take aim at a Secret Service protectee but also "overarching structural changes" that Congress has determined are necessary for the protective agency.

The release noted that in preparing its report, the Task Force conducted 46 interviews with federal, state, and local law enforcement officials, held more than a dozen briefings with agencies and officials at all levels, conducted two public hearings, and reviewed nearly 20,000 pages of relevant documents and communications.

Lengthy and thorough report

In the 180-page final report, the Task Force said, "The full record of evidence clearly shows failures in advance planning by the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners in the days before the July 13 campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, and failures in execution on the day of the event itself. The Task Force’s investigation also identified preexisting conditions and leadership failures that set the stage for tragedy."

"The Task Force found that the tragic and shocking events in Butler, Pennsylvania were preventable and should not have happened," the report continued. "There was not, however, a singular moment or decision that allowed Thomas Matthew Crooks to nearly assassinate the former President."

"The various failures in planning, execution, and leadership on and before July 13, 2024, and the preexisting conditions that undermined the effectiveness of the human and material assets deployed that day, coalesced to create an environment in which the former President -- and everyone at the campaign event -- were exposed to grave danger," the lawmakers added. "Conversely, the events that transpired on September 15,
2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida, demonstrated how properly executed protective measures can foil an attempted assassination."

At another point, the report stated, "The failures that led to the tragic events of July 13 were not entirely isolated to the campaign event itself, or the days preceding it. Preexisting issues in leadership and training created an environment in which the specific failures identified above could occur."

"Secret Service personnel with little to no experience in advance planning roles were given significant responsibility, despite the July 13 event being held at a higher-risk outdoor venue with many line of sight issues, in addition to specific intelligence about a long-range threat," the Task Force noted. "Further, some of the Secret Service agents in significant advance planning roles did not clearly understand the delineation of their responsibilities."

"Failures occurred in numerous ways"

Prior to the release of the Task Force's final report, Roll Call reported that Chairman Kelly cited "planning failures" as his chief concern in that they led to "confusion" and a lack of coordination between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies that resulted in a failure to properly secure the campaign rally site and its immediate surroundings.

"And this is most important: Communications and intelligence failures occurred in numerous ways, ranging from … agents failing to speak up about problems they observed, training issues, inadequate resources and not having the ability to communicate with one another in the moment of the crisis," Kelly explained.

As for ranking member Rep. Crow, he highlighted the bipartisan nature of the Task Force and its report that, in his view, was intended "to show the nation that we can undertake the work of conducting an investigation, of uncovering the truth, and submitting a bipartisan report telling that story, and that is what we have done."