The head of a powerful police union on Tuesday accused the interim director of the U.S. Secret Service of shifting the blame when he testified before Congress that local authorities should have covered the rooftop where a gunman opened fire during his attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Fraternal Order of Police National President Patrick Yoess expressed dissatisfaction with the responses of Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Roe during a joint hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Senate Judiciary Committees investigating the security failures that led to the assassination attempt on President Trump.
“While the Secret Service still appears to have no answers nearly three weeks after the assassination attempt on a former president, they appear to have no problem holding partner agencies accountable,” Yoess said. “It is the Secret Service’s responsibility to ensure the safety of those it protects, and local agencies can only support them with manpower and resources.”
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Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald Rowe testified in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Joint Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the security failures that led to the assassination attempt on former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
The suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who shot Trump in the ear, opened fire from the roof of a nearby building during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has been heavily criticized for security lapses that allowed Crooks to get so close to the former president.
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Yoes said Rowe’s comments are “like a general blaming a tank driver for losing a battle. The acting chief needs to focus on finding out what went wrong before blaming his agency’s local law enforcement partners.”
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump was hastily escorted off the stage during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said the gunman wounded Trump before dying. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Rowe told lawmakers that the Secret Service had been told by local police that “the building was going to be covered.”
He added, “I don’t understand why there wasn’t better reporting,” and asked, “Why wasn’t the perpetrator seen?” Rowe later said investigators “assumed the state and local had it.” [covered]”
Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald Rowe testified at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which is investigating security failures that led to the assassination attempt on former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.)
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“Well, we all know what assumptions can lead to,” Yoesu said. “Those assumptions and the series of failures that occurred in this case led to the death of an innocent man and the shooting of a former president.”
“Which agency is responsible for security at this event?” he asked. “Which agency placed these buildings outside the security perimeter?”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Secret Service.
