The new acting director of the Secret Service testified Tuesday before a joint meeting of the Senate Judiciary, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees that he never personally refused extra security at former President Donald Trump’s outdoor rallies, but said he would hold all agents assigned to Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania “accountable.”
Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Rowe appeared before two Senate committees to discuss the recent assassination attempt on President Trump, which nearly killed the former president, killed former Fire Chief Cory Comperatore, and seriously injured two others.
“So it’s the room that makes the decisions?”
In anticipation of Rowe’s testimony, Real Clear Politics On Tuesday morning, the agency released a bombshell report alleging that Rowe was “directly involved” in the Secret Service’s repeated decisions to deny the Trump campaign’s requests for “magnetometers, additional officers, and other resources to assist with screening rally-goers.” Citing “multiple sources familiar with the Secret Service’s decision-making,” RCP claimed that these requests for additional security were denied over a two-year period.
The RCP report further alleged that Rowe had the sole authority to decide whether to “deny counter-sniper teams to Trump events outside driving distance of Washington.”
Senator Josh Hawley (Missouri Republican) mentioned the RCP report during a heated exchange with the acting director.
“Real Clear Politics reported this morning that you were directly involved in not only this incident, but over the last two years, in the denial of additional security resources and personnel, including counter-sniper forces, and that President Trump’s team repeatedly requested these additional resources and you yourself were involved in the denial,” Hawley said. “Is that true?”
“Senator, as I said earlier, that is not true,” Rowe responded.
When Hawley pressed Rowe again about whether he was involved in refusing to provide extra security for the Trump campaign, Rowe continued to deny the allegations: “No, it wasn’t me. No.”
Senator Roger Marshall Rep. (R-Kan.) also pressed Interim Director Rowe about who made the decision to deny additional security to President Trump, eliciting a bizarre response from the acting director of the Secret Service.
“You’ve stated multiple times that President Trump’s team has been denied more details and assets,” Marshall said. “Who would deny that? Who would deny that, generally speaking?”
Rowe responded: “So, Senator, there’s, um, a process there and, um, again, conversations with the details.”
Rather than name names, Rowe kept referring to “processes” and “conversations” and even a vague group called a “strategy meeting,” to the point that Marshall became infuriated by the vagueness, eventually asking, “So it’s the meetings that make the decisions?”
Rowe’s refusal to identify who is responsible for making security decisions at Trump rallies also drew criticism from his Opening StatementIn it, he vowed to “hold accountable” officials who “violate agency rules.”
In fact, Senator Hawley managed to get Rowe to admit that not a single agent involved in providing security for the July 13 rally had been fired. “Senator, I’m not going to jump to judgment,” Rowe stubbornly maintained. “People will be held accountable. I’m going to be honest and not jump to judgment and not persecute people unjustly.”
“I’ve been very forthright,” Rowe later added.
“That remains to be seen,” Hawley retorted, “You’ve only been on the job for a few days. You haven’t fired anyone.”
Rowe became the acting director of the Secret Service last week after former director Kimberly Cheatle resigned.
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