By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — “A stunning security failure” – that’s how senators described the July 13 assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump during a joint oversight hearing this morning. This was the fourth hearing on Capitol Hill examining the assassination attempt since July 13.
One of those hearings resulted in the resignation of former U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Director, Kimberly Cheatle. Today, Cheatle’s replacement was in the hot seat for more than three hours.
“The attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday, July 13th, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a failure on multiple levels,” said Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe.
Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate fielded questions during a joint oversight hearing from members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee
“By all accounts, this was an inexcusable security and planning failure,” said Senator Gary Peters (D- MI), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “This attack was a shocking reminder that the threat of political violence is alive and well in our country.”
Acting USSS Director Rowe called July 13 “a failure of imagination.”
“A failure to imagine that we actually do live in a very dangerous world where people do actually want to do harm to our protectees,” said Rowe. “We didn’t challenge our own assumptions of ‘we assume that someone’s going to cover that. We assume that there’s going to be uniformed presence.’ We didn’t challenge that internally during that advance,” he added.
Questions about how the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get in position and fire multiple times- despite being spotted by local law enforcement- dominated much of the hearing. Rowe said neither the USSS counter sniper teams, nor Trump’s security detail, were aware of a shooter on a nearby structure.
“It is my understanding those personnel were not aware the assailant had a firearm until they heard gunshots. Prior to that, they were operating with the knowledge that local law enforcement was working an issue of a suspicious individual prior to the shots being fired,” said Rowe, who added that information about Crooks was stuck and siloed in local law enforcement communication channels.
Some Republican senators, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R- MO) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R- TX), demanded more accountability, and grilled Rowe on why no USSS agents have been fired.
“The former president was shot,” shouted Sen. Josh Hawley (R- MO) to Rowe during a tense exchange.
“Sir, this could have been our Texas School Book Depository. I have lost sleep over that for the last 17 days,” responded Rowe to Hawley.
“Then fire somebody to hold them accountable,” Hawley exclaimed.
“I will tell you, Senator, that I will not rush to judgment, that people will be held accountable, and I will do so with integrity,” said Rowe.
Senators still have questions about the lack of communication, security and preparation between local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. Sen. Peters is leading the bipartisan investigation into those security and planning failures.
“This was an attack on our democracy. Americans should be able to attend a political rally and express their political beliefs without fear of violence,” said Sen. Peters. “We need to get all of the facts about what happened that day and how we can ensure an attack like this is never allowed to happen again.”
Unlike his predecessor, there were no calls for Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe to resign following this hearing. Rowe did receive bipartisan appreciation for being upfront and honest about the mistakes that were made and what could’ve been handled differently.