Secret Service director says he's 'ashamed' following Trump assassination attempt
Secret Service and FBI officials testified in the congressional hearings dedicated to the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13.
Ronald Rowe Jr., the acting director of the Secret Service, said Tuesday that he considered it "indefensible" that the roof used by the shooter in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was unsecured, faulting local law enforcement for not circulating urgent information ahead of the shooting and for not adequately protecting the scene, the Associated Press reported.
RELATED: Trump was struck by a bullet during assassination attempt, FBI says
"What I saw made me ashamed. As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year Secret Service veteran, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured," Rowe said per the AP.
Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. testifies before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 30, 2024 in Washington,
Rowe also testified that he recently visited the shooting site and said, "What I saw made me ashamed." He said that the shooting amounted to a "failure on multiple levels," including a failure of imagination.
Tuesday's hearing before the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees was the latest in a series of congressional sessions dedicated to the law enforcement lapses and missed communications that preceded the shooting, according to the AP.
The FBI revealed new details about 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, with Deputy Director Paul Abbate saying a social media account believed to be connected with Crooks, the suspected shooter in the assassination attempt, embraced political violence and included antisemitic and anti-immigrant sentiment. The posts were from the 2019-2020 timeframe, when Crooks would have been in high school.
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The FBI on Monday morning told reporters that would-be Trump assassin Thomas Crooks accessed the roof of a building near former President Trump's July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, by climbing up HVAC equipment and piping. Crooks then traversed multiple rooftops before he found his shooting position on top of a building owned by American Glass Research (AGR), located near the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds about 150 yards from where the former president spoke at his rally.
According to the AP, Abbate did not identify the social media platform, saying investigators were still trying to determine that it belonged to Crooks. Abbate indicated that it was separate from an account on a different platform called Gab that was active in 2021.
Rowe accepted blame for his own agency's mistakes while also being critical of local authorities for not sharing information that Crooks, was seen on a roof near the rally site in the minutes before the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania.
"We assumed that the state and locals had it," Rowe said. "We made an assumption that there was going to be uniformed presence out there, that there would be sufficient eyes to cover that, that there was going to be counter-sniper teams" in the building from whose roof Crooks fired shots, less than 150 yards (135 meters) from the rally stage where Trump was speaking.
"And I can assure you," Rowe added, "that we’re not going to make that mistake again."
FILE-Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) chat with each other as United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testifies before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee during a hearing at the Rayburn House Office Buil
"Neither the Secret Service counter sniper teams nor members of the former president’s security detail had any knowledge that there was a man on the roof of the building with a firearm," Rowe said. "It is my understanding those personnel were not aware the assailant had a firearm until they heard gunshots."
Last week, Rowe became acting director of the agency after Kimberly Cheatle resigned following a House hearing where she was questioned by legislators and didn’t answer questions regarding communication failures before the shooting earlier this month.
RELATED: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigns after Trump assassination attempt
The FBI told the AP that Trump has agreed to be interviewed by agents as a crime victim.
Former President Trump responds to secret service director resignation
Minutes after news of Cheatle’s resignation broke, Trump posted a statement on his social media network saying: "The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!" Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Cheatle’s resignation. It was not clear if Trump’s post in reaction to the news about the Secret Service director’s resignation.
Text reveals officers were aware of Thomas Crooks 90 minutes before Trump's assassination attempt
Text messages reveal that authorities responsible for monitoring Trump's Pennsylvania rally spotted his would-be assassin and flagged him to colleagues as suspicious at least 90 minutes before he opened fire.
The messages, obtained by Fox News Digital from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who obtained them from Beaver County Emergency Services Unit (ESU), showed that officers flagged Thomas Matthew Crooks after he was spotted using a range finder – but did not approach him.
According to FOX News, the first screenshot is a group chat of Beaver ESU officers, while the second is from one Beaver County sniper departing his shift at around 4:30 – approximately 90 minutes before Trump took the stage. The New York Times first reported the text screenshots.
Kimberly Cheatle testifies before Congress
Kimberly Cheatle was called to testify in Congress more than a week after the shooting.
She called the attempt on Trump’s life the Secret Service’s "most significant operational failure" in decades, and vowed to "move heaven and earth" to get to the bottom of what went wrong and make sure there’s no repeat of it.
Democrats and Republicans were united in their exasperation as Cheatle said she didn’t know or couldn’t answer numerous questions more than a week after the shooting that left one spectator dead. At one point, Mace used profanity as she accused Cheatle of lying and dodging questions, prompting calls for lawmakers to show "decorum."
Lawmakers pressed Cheatle on how the shooter could get so close to the Republican presidential nominee when he was supposed to be carefully guarded, and why Trump was allowed to take the stage after local law enforcement had identified Crooks as suspicious.
Trump shot at rally in Pennsylvania
Donald Trump survived the assassination attempt before he was whisked off the stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when gunshots rang through the crowd on July 13.
The former president and Republican nominee was showing off a chart of border crossing numbers when the sound of gunfire started ringing through the crowd. Trump could be seen reaching with his right hand toward his neck, and there appeared to be blood on his face.
He quickly ducked behind the riser as agents from his protective detail rushed the stage and screams were heard in the crowd of several thousand people. The gunfire continued as agents tended to him on stage.
FOX News and the Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.