Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe expressed how “ashamed” he felt by the attempted assassination of former President Trump while angrily sounding off about the security lapses that day.
Rowe, who was thrust into the position over the resignation of former Director Kimberly Cheatle, said at a joint congressional hearing Tuesday that there was “a failure on multiple levels” during the July 13 Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania where a bullet grazed the former president, two rally-goers were critically injured and a third died while shielding his family from the hail of bullets.
“I went to the roof of the AGR building where the assailant fired shots and laid in a prone position to evaluate his line of sight. What I saw made me ashamed,” Rowe said in his opening statement to the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.
“As a career law enforcement officer, and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured,” he said.
(Video Credit: PBS News)
“To prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future, I directed our personnel to ensure every event site security plan is thoroughly vetted by multiple experienced supervisors before it is implemented,” Rowe added. “It is clear to me that other protective enhancements could have strengthened our security at the Butler event site.”
He told lawmakers that Trump’s security detail didn’t have “any knowledge” of the shooter, Thomas Crooks, on top of the roof before shots were fired.
“It is my understanding those personnel were not aware that the assailant had a firearm until they heard gunshots,” he said. “Prior to that, they were operating with the knowledge that local law enforcement was working on the issue of a suspicious individual prior to the shots being fired.”
Rowe told the committees that “immediate steps” were being taken to avoid failures like this happening again.
“If this investigation reveals Secret Service employees violated agency protocols, those employees will be held accountable to our disciplinary process,” he said.
Rowe provided images from the rally site and the rooftop where the shooter was.
Whoa pic.twitter.com/Ss8dylwQQ4
— Karli Bonne’ (@KarluskaP) July 30, 2024
In one heated moment with Missouri Senator Josh Hawley over accountability, Rowe angrily refused to fire anyone until an investigation was complete.
“What do you need to investigate to know that there were critical enough failures that people ought to be held accountable?” Hawley demanded. “What more do you need to know?”
“I will not rush to judgment,” Rowe fired back. “People will be held accountable and I will do so with integrity.”
A RealClearPolitics report claimed that Rowe “was directly involved in denying additional security resources and personnel, including counter snipers” for Trump rallies.
Citing sources, the report noted that Rowe and Cheatle “were directly involved in decisions denying requests for more magnetometers, additional agents, and other resources to help screen rallygoers at large, outdoor Trump campaign gatherings.”
“It was Rowe’s decision alone to deny counter-sniper teams to any Trump event outside of driving distance from D.C., these sources asserted,” Susan Crabtree wrote.
Rowe was asked about the report during Tuesday’s testimony.
@SenRonJohnson asks Acting Secret Service Dir. Rowe if my reporting in my latest story, below, is accurate — that he is responsible for limiting counter snipers to Trump and other events that are not drivable from D.C.
Rowe says the reporting isn’t true: “That is a false…
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) July 30, 2024
“That is a false statement. So that is incorrect. That is incorrect,” Rowe responded to Sen. Ron Johnson’s question about the claims.
“Okay, that’s the kind of information you need to refute with documentation,” Johnson replied.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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