It’s too soon to tell for sure but the new Secret Service director appears to be a lot more forthcoming than the last one. Ronald Rowe seemed willing to answer questions as best he could and apologized profusely for the obvious and unacceptable screw-ups. One thing he didn’t do is rule out intentional acts to facilitate the sniper. Another thing he didn’t do, which he’s taking serious heat for in the press, is fire anyone. It’s too soon to do that, he testified. He’s justified as well. Investigators really need to do a thorough probe and nail down the evidence hard before any fingers get pointed.
New director testifies
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe had an entirely different attitude with congress than his predecessor, Kimberly Cheatle.
She spent a whole day on the stand and didn’t say a single thing, then stepped down amid everyone’s howls to have her fired. On Tuesday, July 30, Rowe “struck a different tone.”
The acting director started out by declaring how personally “ashamed” of the attempted assassination of once and future president Donald Trump. Rowe was “prepared to be candid with lawmakers.” He was grilled by two Senate committees at the same time.
Wow – Acting Secret Service Director just lit up his own agency’s failures in a Senate hearing
He believes there is no excuse for this shooting to have happened
He angrily calls for answers the same way we are and I believe he thinks there was serious malfeasance that day by… pic.twitter.com/4JLoRr4goP
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) July 30, 2024
It seems like he was, even though the Senators weren’t happy with all of his answers. He started with an opening statement assuring his hosts that he “visited the site of the July 13 rally where the shooting occurred.”
To familiarize himself with the facts, he went so far as to “lay on the roof Thomas Matthew Crooks fired from.” He got himself set up “in a prone position to evaluate his line of sight.” It was way too good.
“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.” As director, he plans to “prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future.”
Changes in effect
He may be only temporary but he’s acting like a director already, issuing orders to the troops “to ensure every event site security plan is thoroughly vetted by multiple experienced supervisors before it is implemented.” He found a bunch of other ways to improve procedures.
“It is clear to me that other protective enhancements could have strengthened our security.” He didn’t tiptoe around one controversial subject. He made it clear that Trump really did need “additional protective personnel that day.” Their request was, indeed, denied.
He’s only been sitting in the director chair for a week but he’s already “directed the agency to use drones to assess sites.” He’s also working hard “to improve communication after local law enforcement struggled to alert Secret Service to Crooks.”
I have a difficult time believing this many errors by the Secret Service under Cheatle’s direction……wasn’t on purpose!!!
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) July 30, 2024
One thing he didn’t have an answer for but wishes he did was how the Secret Service wasn’t aware of the sniper who had been first identified as suspicious “90 minutes ahead of the shooting.”
With the black cloud of this being an “inside job” hanging heavy in the hearing room, director Rowe carefully phrased a statement, noting “he is also not aware that any countersnipers or members of Trump’s personal security detail were aware of the shooter.”
That implies he’s looking into it with a microscope, adding “there would be consequences for any member of the Secret Service found to have acted inappropriately.” When asked if anyone was fired, he basically answered, “not yet.” Some of the Senators got good sound bites calling him on the carpet over that but it’s still the right answer.
