Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe admitted to being “ashamed” by the security failures that led to a frightening assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a July 13 rally.
Rowe took over as the head of the Secret Service after his predecessor, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned under pressure last week.
On Tuesday, Rowe testified before the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees that his first order of business was to visit the west Pennsylvania rooftop from which a 20-year-old gunman took several open shots at Trump, nearly killing the Republican candidate in November’s election.
Rowe said he could hardly believe his organization failed to secure that obvious vantage point.
“What I saw made me ashamed,” the 25-year Secret Service veteran confessed. “I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”
Rowe, who became deputy director of the Secret Service last year, faced heavy grilling from lawmakers in Washington, D.C. He was seated alongside FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate, whose organization is heading the investigation into the attempted killing of the 78-year-old GOP leader.
Among the Secret Service’s biggest critics on Capitol Hill Tuesday was Trump accolade and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“If a lot of people are not fired, the system failed yet again,” the 69-year-old lawmaker insisted. “Nothing’s gonna change until somebody loses their job.”
Rowe assured lawmakers he has already put measures in place to assure the safety of elected officials moving forward. That includes the use of drones to detect threats on rooftops and other elevated positions.
He was unable to explain how Trump’s shooter was able to survey the Butler Farm Show grounds before the former president began his rally, while the Secret Service struggled to deploy similar counteractive measures due to “connectivity challenge.”
His predecessor frustrated lawmakers when she failed to address questions about Trump’s security detail when she testified before Congress last week.
South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace suggested Cheatle draft a resignation letter on the spot, while Ohio Rep. Mike Turner told her, “You look incompetent.”
Rowe told elected officials Tuesday that he has lost sleep over the Secret Service’s inability to deploy a drone defense system the day Trump was fired on from roughly 150 yards away by local man Thomas Matthew Crooks.
“We could have perhaps stopped him,” Rowe agonized.
The FBI has yet to determine a motive for the attempt on Trump’s life. The gunman was a registered Republican with a seemingly small digital footprint who wasn’t known to harbor animosity toward the outspoken presidential candidate he fired upon.
Some Republicans indicated they felt security for President Biden receives more attention that it does for their party’s leader, whom many of them still refer to as President Trump.
During a tense exchange with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Rowe felt compelled to explain the difference between a sitting president and a presidential candidate.
“Actual command authority to launch a nuclear strike!” Rowe exclaimed.
Lawmakers, including Cruz, praised Secret Service agents in Pennsylvania for their bravery after bullets started pouring down on Trump and his supporters. Two bystanders were injured and one man was killed before a counter-sniper team stopped Crooks.
