Photo: Alamy
Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs joint hearing with acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe quickly turned tense as lawmakers demanded accountability for the failures on the July 13 attempted assassination of President Donald Trump.
Sen. Josh Hawley, Republican from Missouri, asked why the Secret Service did not place a counter-sniper on the roof of the AGR building, as it had a “clear line of sight” to Trump.
Rowe pushed back, claiming that the Secret Service counter-snipers “neutralize those threats that are looking in on us from where the protectee is.”
Hawley responded, asking, “Maybe you might want to revise that protocol in light of what happened here?”
Hawley then asked “Who was the lead site agent who made the decision to leave the AGR building completely outside of the security perimeter, who was that?” Rowe refused to disclose the agent’s name, although Hawley quipped, “I know their name, by the way. Why have they not been relieved of duty?”
Rowe admitted the agent had not been relieved of duty and was cooperating with multiple investigations into the events of that day. He attempted to justify the decision not to fire anyone, telling Hawley, “We will let the facts of the mission assurance and any further investigations play out.”
“Isn’t the fact that a former president was shot, that a good American is dead, that other Americans were critically wounded, isn’t that enough mission failure for you to say that the person who decided that that building should not be in the security perimeter probably oughta be stepped down?” Hawley responded.
Rowe accused Hawley of “zeroing in on one particular agent” when there could be multiple people in the decision-making process that were at fault.
Hawley countered, “Well sure! My question is why don’t you relieve everybody of duty who made bad judgment. So yeah, you’re right, I am zeroing in on somebody, I’m trying to find somebody who is accountable here.”
Hawley then asked Rowe about the status of the person who oversaw the interoperability of communications between the Secret Service and local law enforcement. Rowe claimed that they had a “counterpart system” that failed on July 13.
Hawley blasted through a series of questions related to each operational failure and whether the person in charge was fired, to which Rowe admitted that none of them had been relieved of their duties.
Rowe became visibly irritated, as Hawley asked, “What more do you need to investigate to know that there were critical enough failures that some individuals oughta be held accountable. I mean what more do you need to know?”
Rowe claimed that he could not “put his thumb on the scale” and “make a rush to judgment about somebody failing,” which prompted Hawley to retort, “Is it not prima facie that somebody has failed, a former President was shot!”
Rowe told Hawley that he had “lost sleep” since the attempted assassination. Hawley interjected with, “Then just fire somebody to hold them accountable!”
Rowe said he would not “rush to judgment and put people unfairly persecuted,” before Hawley cut in with, “Unfairly persecuted? We’ve got people who are dead!”
Hawley again recommended that Secret Service protocols needed to be revised to hold people immediately accountable when something like this happens.
Hawley asked Rowe if it was “accurate” that law enforcement officers were supposed to have been on the roof of the AGR building but had “abandoned their post because it was too hot.” Rowe said that he was aware of but could not confirm the whistleblower claims and that they “should have been on that roof” instead of inside the building.
Hawley concluded his testimony by asking Rowe why the Secret Service declined an offer from local law enforcement to use their drones, to which he responded, “I think the ability of local law enforcement to provide an asset we probably should have taken them up on it if we, if it was offered.”