Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) said federal law enforcement's quick assumption that the Boston bombings were an isolated case was the wrong "starting point" to take into the investigation on CNN Tuesday.
President Obama defended the FBI and Department of Homeland Security for its work on the Tsarnaev case during his news conference Tuesday.
Chaffetz said the initial reaction for a terrorist act of this magnitude on U.S. soil should have been far different.
"We have one of the biggest terrorist attacks on the homeland, [and] your starting point is 'Hey everybody did their job and did great?'" he said. "That's not your starting point. Your starting point is, 'This is unacceptable. We will not stand for it. We will get to the bottom of it, and we will not rest until we figure it out.' That's your starting point."
JASON CHAFFETZ: Two things bothered me. As soon as the bombing happened we had officials locally and from the Feds saying, 'Oh, this was an isolated case, this was just one person involved.' We didn't know that. In fact, I think the starting point should be, 'It might be part of a bigger, broader plot,' and I do think we have to go back and review what happened. We need to look at the immigration status, we need to look at the fact of how the Russians shared this information. We've got to look at all of this. So I think you have to have a starting point. When you've got three people dead, over 200 people injured, people have lost limbs, that we have one of the biggest terrorist attacks on the homeland, your starting point is 'Hey everybody did their job and did great?' That's not your starting point. Your starting point is 'This is unacceptable.' We will not stand for it. We will get to the bottom of it, and we will not rest until we figure it out.' That's your starting point.
Full interview: