Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe said at a press conference on Friday that the agency’s failure to protect former President Donald Trump at a recent rally in Pennsylvania was a “failure.”
“This was a failure. We should have done a better job of protecting those we were meant to protect,” Rowe said at the agency’s first news conference about the July 13 attempt.
Mr Rowe also acknowledged that the roof where Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Mr Trump, killing one rally attendee and wounding two others should have been better covered.
“We should have had a better look at that roof line. We should have had at least another pair of eyes from a Secret Service perspective. That building was very close to the perimeter. And we should have been more vigilant,” he said.
He was asked about a recent video taken by one of the injured rally attendees that shows Crooks running across a rooftop.
BREAKING: Video taken by victim at Trump rally in Pennsylvania shows a person running on roof where Thomas Crooks shot Trump moments before he was shot in the face.
Wow.
The video, obtained by Fox News, was recorded by James Copenhaver, the man who was shot twice.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 31, 2024
“In terms of the timeline of him going back and forth, I know the FBI has provided a little bit of a timeline as well, so we’ll have to go back and look at that,” Rowe said.
“But ultimately, this was a failure by the Secret Service. The roof area should have been covered. We should have looked more closely.”
At a Senate hearing earlier this week, Rowe reiterated his claim that Secret Service counter-snipers never saw Crooks on the roof with a gun, but did not say whether the counter-snipers ever saw Crooks on the roof without a gun.
However, when asked specifically by Senator John Kennedy whether the counter-snipers saw Crooks on the roof, Rowe claimed that they hadn’t seen him at all until Crooks opened fire.
That claim was called into question Wednesday when a video emerged in which one of the injured rally attendees clearly saw Crooks from where he was seated on a beam behind Trump.
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