Acting Director of the US Secret Service, Ronald L. Rowe, Jr. testifies next to Deputy Director of the FBI Paul Abbate before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the attempted assassination of Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, July 30, 2024.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Washington: The US Secret Service's new acting director said on Tuesday he is "ashamed" of a major security lapse that preceded the July 13 attempted assassination of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally.
In testimony before two Senate committees, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said he visited the outdoor rally site in Butler and climbed onto the roof of a nearby building from which 20-year-old Thomas Crooks fired shots that wounded Trump's right ear, killed one rally attendee and wounded two others, with an AR-15-style rifle.
"What I saw made me ashamed," Rowe told a joint hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees. "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."
Investigators have still not discovered Crooks' motive, but FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate testified that they have newly found a social media account dating to 2019-2020 that appeared to be linked to the shooter.
"There were over 700 comments posted from this account," Abbate said. "Some of these comments appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature."
Rowe's admission of a glaring security lapse came a week after former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned under bipartisan congressional pressure after refusing to detail security shortfalls in testimony before a House of Representatives panel.
Rowe sought to assure lawmakers that he has since taken steps to prevent similar lapses from occurring amid concerns among both Democrats and Republicans about further political violence as the campaign intensifies ahead of the Nov. 5 US election.
The Secret Service, a federal law enforcement agency whose duties including protecting the president and certain other top political figures, has added six people to its protection list since July 13, including Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance and his family and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, while reinforcing security details, Rowe said.
"This attack was a shocking reminder that the threat of political violence is alive and well in our country. By all accounts, this was inexcusable security, and planning failure," Democratic Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters said, adding that his panel is working on reforms to strengthen security protocols for the Secret Service.
Senator Rand Paul, the committee's top Republican, said his staff had found communication gaps between local police who first noticed Crooks and the Secret Service.
Rowe said that Secret Service counter snipers and members of the Trump security detail had no knowledge that there was a man with a firearm on the roof of a nearby building.
The attempted assassination is the topic of multiple investigations by House and Senate committees, as well as a new bipartisan task force established by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Investigators have been unable to determine a clear motive for Crooks, who they have described as a loner with no close friends and a social network limited mainly to immediate family members. Much interest revolves around the timeline from when law enforcement officials first noticed Crooks to when Secret Service snipers killed him after he opened fire.