GOP Lawmaker Insists ‘Line of Succession’ Not Be Allowed At One Event: Could Have ‘All Been Taken Out’

Republican lawmaker Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) insisted that the presidential “line of succession” not be allowed to be at the same event because of situations like the shooting at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

McCaul was present at the Washington Hilton when he heard gunshots go off. The president and Trump officials were escorted out by the Secret Service, as were McCaul and other lawmakers.

“But, you know, you don’t know what’s going to happen next, right? You don’t know if it’s going to escalate to an AR-15 situation or an explosive device. And fortunately, it didn’t,” McCaul told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday.

“It’s interesting that you just said you weren’t sure maybe there was an IED,” Bash said. “I spoke this morning with Oz Pearlman, who was slated to be the entertainment last night, and he said one of his first thoughts was, ‘A bomb is going to go off. I had no idea.’ Given that, what do you think of keeping everybody contained in the ballroom?”

“Yeah, a lot of times, and if you’re like dealing with a terrorist situation, you will have another event simultaneously. I think an evacuation would have been appropriate. You know, we just didn’t know if this situation was going to escalate,” McCaul said.

“The thing that really — takeaway I got was that the line of succession — you had the president and the vice president at the head table, both of them together, and the speaker of the House. Had an explosive device gone off, you would have knocked out the president, vice president, speaker — the three in line of succession,” McCaul continued.

“I think the Secret Service needs to reconsider having both the president and vice president together at something like that, you know? Chuck Grassley would be the president had they all been taken out.”

Security was able to stop the gunman shortly after he bolted through the magnetometer and managed to get off a few rounds. One Secret Service agent was hit, but his bulletproof vest prevented major injury.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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