Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. on Tuesday wanted to talk about how other law enforcement agencies failed in the run-up to the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Senators aren’t done focusing on the Secret Service.
Rowe, while again acknowledging the Secret Service made catastrophic errors, repeatedly raised his voice as he vowed to prevent his agency’s leaders from being “unfairly persecuted” in a joint Senate committee hearing Tuesday. And he laid some blame specifically at the feet of local law enforcement agencies who were working with the Secret Service at Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania rally — saying their decisions left an inexplicable blind spot that the shooter exploited.
However, Rowe’s umbrage — a stark contrast to his more muted predecessor, Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned after a disastrous appearance before a congressional panel — may not have landed with senators, who repeatedly clashed with the new head and said the agency was still falling short.
“We assumed that the state and locals had it,” Rowe told the committee. “We made an assumption.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) replied: “Those assumptions can be lethal.”
Rowe even brought his own graphics to underscore how little Secret Service snipers positioned around Trump could see of the shooter while he was lying prone on the rooftop 150 yards away. He noted repeatedly that if local police had remained at their posts, all they had to do was “look left” and they would have seen him. The message was clear, despite occasional emphasis on the crucial partnership the Secret Service shares with local police departments.
Rowe added that the Secret Service sniper who took the shot that killed the shooter was his “friend” and was not personally responsible for the lapse. That sparked pushback from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.): “We can’t let our friendships blind us from responsibility.”
While Rowe didn’t face calls to resign, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees repeatedly asked him to identify precisely which officials failed by allowing Trump to take the stage that day and who left the rooftop unguarded. His refusal to do so ignited fierce blowback.
Rowe said the Office of Professional Responsibility is reviewing actions taken in the lead up to and during the rally — but repeatedly declined to get ahead of those reviews.
“Somebody has got to be fired. Nothing is going to change until somebody loses their job,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Rowe during the hearing.
Rowe’s repeated clashes with the panel overshadowed the presence of FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate, who was rarely called upon during the hearing but did reveal that the bureau had discovered a social media account — possibly connected to the shooter — that espoused antisemitic and anti-immigrant views.
The hearing was punctuated by a particularly tense clash between Rowe and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who pressed him once again to identify people who should be fired for failing to protect Trump and his rallygoers.
“What more do you need to know?” Hawley said when Rowe resisted.
“What I need to know is exactly what happened. … I cannot put my thumb on the scale,” Rowe replied. “You’re asking me, senator, to completely make a rush to judgment.”
“People will be held accountable and I will do so with integrity and not rush to judgment,” Rowe continued, “and [make] people unfairly persecuted.”
“Unfairly persecuted?” Hawley responded, raising his voice. “People are dead.”