'Made me ashamed': Acting Secret Service director shocked by failures to defend Trump
July 30, 2024
Acting United States Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe made no excuses for his agency when he appeared before Congress to discuss the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump earlier this month.
Rowe, who took over the agency after former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last week, described a series of failures that allowed an assassin to come within inches of taking the former president's life.
"The attempted assassination of former president Donald J. Trump on Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a failure on multiple levels," he began.
After giving credit to members of the Secret Service who leaped in to keep Trump safe, as well as the sniper team that killed assailant Thomas Crooks, Rowe detailed what he believed went wrong in securing the location where the former president was speaking.
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"Since my appointment as the acting director one week ago, I identified gaps in our security on July 13 and have implemented corrective actions," he said. "One of my first actions as acting director was traveling to the Butler farm site to better understand how our protection failed.
"I went to the roof of the AGR building where the assailant fired shots and I laid in a prone position to evaluate his line of sight. What I saw made me ashamed. 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."
He then outlined some of the measures he had taken to improve security at future events.
"I have directed the expanded use of unmanned aerial systems at protective sites to help detect threats on roofs and other elevated threats," he said. "I've also directed resources to facilitate our protective site communications, particularly our communications with our state and local partners."
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