Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley engaged in a shouting match with Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. on Tuesday over the agency’s handling of the assassination attempt against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Rowe testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday about the handling of the assassination attempt during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Hawley pressed Rowe on the lack of firings that occurred over the failures to surveil the rooftop where the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire.
“You’re asking me, senator, to completely make a rush to judgment about somebody failing. I acknowledge, this was a failure—” Rowe said during the questioning.
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“Is it not prima facie that somebody has failed? The former president was shot!” Hawley interjected.
Rowe said he has “lost sleep” over the handling of the assassination attempt since the incident occurred, and assured Hawley that he would hold people accountable “with integrity” and not “rush to judgement.”
“Then fire somebody to hold them accountable!” Hawley shouted.
“And I will do so with integrity and not rush to judgment and put people unfairly persecuted,” Rowe said.
The senator then confronted Rowe on reports that the Secret Service denyied the Trump campaign’s request for additional security, which Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas said on July 15 was “unequivocally false.” Rowe also denied the reports said he had no involvement in that type of decision making.
Whistleblowers reportedly told Hawley that Secret Service agents were assigned to be present on the roof where Crooks fired eight bullets into the crowd, but did not do so because of the hot temperature. Rowe said the agents “posted up inside” and assured that state and local counter snipers were present on roofs during political events.
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“Again senator, we are looking at this, and they should’ve been on that roof and the fact that they were in the building is something I’m still trying to understand,” Rowe said.
“I just want to express my frustration, director, that seventeen days or whatever it’s been that whistleblowers are telling us more than you are and you don’t know, you haven’t ascertained if there was supposed to be law enforcement on the roof. That seems like a pretty basic fact. I’m also told that law enforcement suppliers offered the Secret Service drones, and you declined them,” Hawley said.
A whistleblower reportedly told Hawley’s office that local enforcement offered drone technology to the Secret Service the night before the rally that allegedly had the capability to both monitor and “neutralize” potential threats, according to a July 25 letter sent by Hawley to the DHS. Rowe confirmed the agency was offered to fly a drone over the stadium and said they “probably” should have accepted the offer.
Hawley immediately pushed back against Rowe after he said he has been “transparent and forthcoming” regarding the information he obtained about the shooting.
“Your agency has not been transparent and forthcoming,” Hawley interrupted. “So please, let’s not go there.”
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“I have been forthcoming, sir,” Rowe pushed back, leading Hawley to point out he has not fired any of his personnel.
Members of the Secret Service and the FBI told lawmakers on July 17 that officials noticed Crooks approximately 50 minutes before Trump took the stage during the rally. The Secret Service reportedly witnessed Crooks on the roof about 20 minutes before he fired shots into the crowd.
Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley obtained text messages on Monday suggesting that law enforcement flagged Crooks to their colleagues as a suspicious presence nearly 90 minutes before the shooting, according to The New York Times. Officers spotted Crooks as he was using a rangefinder, but did not approach him.
Crooks’ attack injured Trump in the upper portion of his right ear and killed former fire chief Corey Comperatore as he shielded his two daughters from the bullets. The shooting injured two other rally goers.
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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