Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe expressed his “shame” over former President Trump's assassination attempt as he sounded angry about security failures that day.
Rowe, who took over after the resignation of former director Kimberly Cheatle, told a joint congressional hearing on Tuesday that there was “a failure on multiple levels” during Trump's July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania , where a bullet grazed the former. president, two demonstrators were seriously injured and a third was killed while protecting his family from the hail of bullets.
“I went to the roof of the AGR building where the assailant fired shots and lay prone to assess his line of sight. I was embarrassed by what I saw,” Rowe said in the his opening statement to the Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees.
“As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I can't argue why that roof wasn't better secured,” he said.
(Video credit: PBS News)
“To prevent similar mistakes from happening in the future, I have directed our staff to ensure that all event site security plans are thoroughly reviewed by multiple experienced supervisors prior to implementation,” he said. add Rowe. “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 had “no knowledge” of the shooter, Thomas Crooks, on the roof before the shots were fired.
“It is my understanding that those staff did not know 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 a suspicious person before shots were fired.”
Rowe told the committees that “immediate steps” were being taken to prevent failures like this from happening again.
“If this investigation reveals that Secret Service employees violated agency protocols, those employees will be subject to our disciplinary process,” he said.
Rowe provided images of the rally site and the rooftop where the shooter was.
wow pic.twitter.com/Ss8dylwQQ4
— Karli Bonne' (@KarluskaP) July 30, 2024
In a heated exchange with Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley over accountability, Rowe angrily refused to fire anyone until the investigation was complete.
“What do you need to investigate to know that there were failures critical enough that people should be held accountable?” Hawley demanded. “What else do you need to know?”
“I won't rush to judgement,” Rowe replied. “People will be held accountable and I will do it with integrity.”
A RealClearPolitics report claimed that Rowe “was directly involved in denying additional security resources and personnel, including snipers” for Trump's 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 detect attendees of Trump campaign rallies in the Open air”.
“It was Rowe's decision alone to deny sniper teams to any Trump event outside of DC driving distance,” these sources claimed, Susan Crabtree wrote.
Rowe was asked about the report during testimony Tuesday.
@SenRonJohnson asks the acting director of the Secret Service. Rowe if my report in my last story below is accurate, that he is responsible for limiting the counter-snipers to Trump and other events that cannot be controlled from DC.
Rowe says the report is not true: “This is false…
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) July 30, 2024
“That's a false claim. So that's wrong. That's wrong,” Rowe said when asked by Sen. Ron Johnson about the claims.
“Okay, that's the kind of information that needs to be refuted with documentation,” Johnson replied.
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