Florida Rep. Ted Deutch (D.) would not say Sunday if he agreed with Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel's statement that he had provided "amazing leadership" to his department.
Deutch represents the district where the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting occurred on Feb. 14, leaving 17 dead.
The Broward County Sheriff's Office has come under fire over the past week due to revelations that the department didn't follow up on multiple tips about the perpetrator and an armed deputy failed to enter the school as the massacre was unfolding.
CNN host Jake Tapper grilled Israel over the department's failures Sunday morning on "State of the Union."
"Are you really not taking any responsibility for the multiple red flags that were brought to the attention of the Broward Sheriff's Office about this shooter before the incident?" Tapper asked.
"Jake, I can only take responsibility for what I knew about. I exercised my due diligence. I've given amazing leadership to this agency," Israel said, leading Tapper to incredulously ask, "Amazing leadership?'
New "Face The Nation" host Margaret Brennan read out Israel's quote and asked Deutch if he agreed.
"Well, I'll tell you what the sheriff needs to do, and he's doing it," Deutch said. "I talked to the sheriff last night about this. We need to find out exactly what happened, why it was that there were so many signals, not just from the visits but the social media postings."
The FBI has also admitted it failed to follow through on a credible tip before the shooting that the killer was dangerous.
"We can do two things. We can continue to figure out what happened to make sure that never happens again and still take meaningful action to ensure that weapons of war, like the one that this shooter used, can never be used in another mass shooting," Deutch said.
Deutch and Israel both participated in a CNN town hall Wednesday and called for stronger gun control laws.