Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told Congress on Tuesday that the agency failed to protect the former president donald trump when he was injured during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this month.
“This is a failure of the Secret Service,” Rowe said in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.
His appearance on Capitol Hill came a week after Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle resigned following her own testimony before the House oversight committee.
Rowe appeared alongside the deputy director of the FBI Paul Abbatewho told lawmakers that a social media account believed to be used by Trump’s alleged assassin contains posts that “appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigration themes.”
Federal investigators continue to search for the motive of the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by a counter sniper at the rally.
Here are other key takeaways from Tuesday’s hearing:
Secret Service acting director ‘can’t defend why that roof wasn’t better protected’
In his opening statement, Rowe said he could neither explain nor defend why Crooks was able to gain access to the roof from which he opened fire.
“I can’t defend why that roof wasn’t better protected,” Rowe testified.
Rowe said he visited the rally site last week “to better understand how our protection failed.”
“I went to the roof [the building] where the assailant shot and lay face down to assess his line of sight,” Rowe reminded the committees. “What I saw made me ashamed.”
FBI deputy director says local police officer saw suspect with gun seconds before shooting
During his testimony, Abbate revealed that a local police officer spotted Crooks on the roof with a firearm seconds before he opened fire.
Abbate said surveillance video from a local business captured Crooks climbing onto the roof of the building where he staged the shooting at approximately 6:06 p.m.
“And at approximately 6:08 p.m. the subject was observed on the roof by local authorities,” Abbate said. “At approximately 6:11 p.m., a local police officer was taken to the roof by another officer, saw the shooter and radioed that he was armed with a long gun. Within approximately the next 30 seconds, shots were fired.”
Rowe says radio communications were ‘jammed’ and not recorded
The acting director testified that, in those approximately 30 seconds, radio communication between local authorities and federal agents was “jammed” and that information about the shooter on the roof never reached the Secret Service.
Rowe said problems with Wi-Fi connectivity affected the Secret Service’s counter-drone operations, which were not working when Crooks flew a drone over the rally site earlier in the day.
He also said Secret Service radio communications from the day of the shooting were not recorded because the agency typically does not record them during events not involving the president or vice president outside of Washington. Rowe said he has determined that the agency will record radio communications from all campaign events going forward.
Republican Party senators demand Secret Service firings
During the hearing, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri demanded action on the security failures that led to Trump’s shooting.
“If this happens in the military, a lot of people will be fired,” Graham said. “And if enough people don’t get fired, the system has failed once again.”
“We need to know what happened and take corrective measures,” he added. “But someone needs to be fired. Nothing will change until someone loses their job.”
Later, during a tense conversation with Hawley, Rowe said he “will not rush to judgment” amid the Secret Service’s ongoing internal investigations into the failures that day.
“Sir, this could have been our Texas textbook warehouse,” Rowe explained, referring to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. “I’ve lost sleep over this for the last 17 days, just like you. ”
“Then fire someone,” Hawley countered.
