'This is clearly a cover-up': GOP senators speak out after Secret Service acting director's presser

Congressional Republicans were left unimpressed by acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe’s press conference Friday.

During the press conference — the Secret Service’s first one since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump — Rowe reportedly coughed up few answers.

“It is clear that the American people still have not been given the full story,” Sen. Mike Lee later complained to Fox News. “From the beginning, rally attendees and people with cellphone footage seem to have been more invested in stopping the shooter and figuring out what happened than the Secret Service itself. It is shocking that more officials have not been held accountable.”

Sen. Ron Johnson agreed, telling Fox News that there was “clearly a cover-up.”

“I do not believe acting Director Rowe was forthcoming, as the government rarely admits to being wrong,” he said. “I suspect that Rowe knows precisely who was responsible for this massive security failure and that this is clearly a cover-up. We need a detailed investigation and transcribed interviews to uncover the truth.”

“It’s obvious that this was an epic failure by the leadership of the Secret Service and DHS, whose main responsibility was to protect President Trump at this rally,” Sen. Rick Scott added. “Since the shooting, it seemed we got new information from outside sources but nothing from the agencies investigating this failure.”

“Unless we start getting daily press conferences, conspiracy and rumor will run wild, and trust will permanently disappear. The American people still have unanswered questions, and they want to know people are being held accountable for the admitted failures,” the Florida Republican continued.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn concurred.

“When the Secret Service fails to accomplish its mission, people die,” she told Fox News. “The tragic events that occurred in Butler, Pennsylvania, were a direct consequence of their failure, and the agency must listen to the concerns of every whistleblower that comes forward. We will be watching to ensure the Secret Service’s internal investigation results in real accountability.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, meanwhile, reacted angrily on X to Rowe’s insistence that the Secret Service agents on patrol the day of the assassination attempt had been unaware that would-be assassin Thomas Crooks had a gun until he’d started firing:

But Secret Service was IN CHARGE of this event, and in charge of local law enforcement. USSS lack of knowledge about events transpiring over nearly *two hours* at their own event is inexcusable https://t.co/c01mdwXTQ9

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) August 2, 2024

To Rowe’s credit, he did at least purport to take full responsibility for the agency’s failures.

“The Secret Service takes full responsibility for the tragic events of July 13. This was a mission failure,” he said. “The sole responsibility of our agency is to make sure our protectees are never put in danger. We fell short of that in Butler, and I’m working to make sure that this failure does not happen again.”

“If policy violations by Secret Service personnel are identified by the agency’s mission assurance review, those individuals will be held accountable, and they will be held accountable to our fair and thorough disciplinary process,” he added.

Now, to be clear, the press conference wasn’t entirely useless. According to Fox News host Jesse Watters, Rowe did reveal some bombshells.

“Director Ronald Rowe made a shocking admission… The former President of the United States and the nominee as the Republican, the man who the Democrats and the media have been labeling as a clear and present danger to democracy, Hitler and a dictator, wasn’t given Secret Service counter-sniper teams at his campaign rallies for the last two years,” Watters said Friday on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

“That means when they put Trump on trial in Manhattan every day when he returned from court to Trump Tower, there were no Secret Service counter-snipers. The whole world knew Trump’s schedule and location for six weeks. In a city with thousands of windows and high rises, no Secret Service counter-snipers. That means when Trump was in the Bronx, no Secret Service counter-snipers. Anyone could have climbed onto a tree, could have gone onto a rooftop with a gun. What about when he went to the bodega in Harlem after court? He’s enveloped by buildings, hundreds of windows, any one of which a rifle could have fired from. No Secret Service counter-snipers,” he added.

“So why all of a sudden, after two years of no Secret Service counter-snipers, have they showed up in Butler? And that was the rally where there was an attempt on his life. After the assassination attempt, the intelligence community leaked an exclusive to their friends at CNN, saying the reason they added counter-snipers to Butler was because of an Iranian threat to Trump’s life,” Watters continued.

“But that doesn’t make any sense, because there’s been an Iranian fatwa out for Trump since he whacked Soleimani. That was over four years ago. And when the feds were pressed about this, they admitted there wasn’t any new intelligence from Iran. What a coincidence. The Secret Service surrounding Trump has been an illusion. We believe these agents were in constant communication with each other using the latest technology that we didn’t even know about. Turns out the Secret Service counter-sniper team and Butler never had radios that day,” he said.

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Vivek Saxena

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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.

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