The acting director of the Secret Service testified Tuesday that he was “ashamed” at the security gaps that led to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and pledged to discipline any agents who failed to do their jobs.
During a rare joint Senate committee hearing, acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said he could not understand or defend why the roof where the 20-year-old shooter fired from on July 13 was not better secured.
He said the Secret Service was investigating whether any employees broke any rules that day. Those employees, Rowe said, would be held accountable through the agency’s disciplinary process and face penalties that could include termination.
“That roof should have had better coverage,” he said, “and we will get to the bottom of if there were any policy violations.”
Rowe displayed bursts of anger early in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee as he discussed what went wrong during Trump’s presidential campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Rowe said he traveled to the site of the shooting and went up on the roof to evaluate the gunman’s line of sight and laid in the prone position.
“What I saw made me ashamed,” he said. “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.”
At a minimum, Rowe said, somebody should have been looking at the roof, but there was a “failure of imagination.”
Rowe raised his voice again as Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., pressured him to make immediate terminations. Rowe said he would not do so, or rush judgement, until a proper investigation is completed.
“You’re asking me, senator, to completely make a rush to judgment about somebody failing,” Rowe said.
Rowe said he would take disciplinary action as warranted and “with integrity.”
“This was a failure and we will get to the bottom of it,” he said.
Tuesday’s hearing is the latest in a series that lawmakers have held to investigate how Thomas Crooks, 20, was able to evade law enforcement and open fire at Trump.
Trump was shot in the ear, one rallygoer was killed and two others were wounded before Crooks was fatally shot by a counter-sniper with the Secret Service.
Rowe was appointed acting director last week after Kimberly Cheatle resigned, following a blistering House Oversight Committee hearing in which legislators skewered her over her lack of cooperation.
“I’ve heard your calls for accountability, and I take them very seriously,” Rowe said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
