Hearing in the US House of Representatives with Secret Service ends in heated argument | intelligence

A hearing on the Secret Service’s response to the assassination attempts against Donald Trump went off the rails on Thursday when a shouting match broke out between acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe and a Republican representative.

The hearing, hosted by the House task force established shortly after the first assassination attempt against Trump in July, was intended to examine steps the Secret Service has taken to improve security measures for protected individuals, but Pat Fallon, a Texas Republicans took this questioning of Rowe in a different direction.

Fallon showed an enlarged photo from a memorial service for the September 11 attacks in New York involving Joe Biden and Trump Visited at the beginning of the year. Fallon accused Rowe, who stood directly behind Biden and Kamala Harris in the photo, of taking the place of special agent in charge that day and endangering the president’s safety for a photo op.

Rowe responded that the special agent in charge was not in view at the time and attacked Fallon for politicizing the 9/11 attacks.

“I actually responded to Ground Zero. I was there digging through the ashes of the World Trade Center,” Rowe said.

“I’m not asking you that,” Fallon interrupted, raising his voice. “Were you the special agent in charge?”

Rowe shouted back: “I was there to show respect for a Secret Service member who died on 9/11.”

Fallon suggested that Rowe, who is not expected to remain as director once Trump takes office in January, was “auditioning” for the role should Harris win the presidency.

“Don’t invoke 9/11 for political reasons,” Rowe told Fallon.

“I’m not,” Fallon replied. He accused Rowe: “You endangered the lives of President Biden and Vice President Harris by moving these agents out of position.”

Rowe denied that accusation, telling Fallon, “You’re out of line.”

The committee chairman, Republican Mike Kelly, banged the gavel repeatedly until the shouting subsided. The heated exchange came as the Secret Service faces intense scrutiny over its security practices, which drew widespread criticism in the wake of the Trump assassination attempt.

The agency was pilloried for failing to provide adequate security at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman wounded the then-presidential candidate and fatally shot an attendee named Corey Comperatore. Rowe’s predecessor, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned amid bipartisan criticism of her agency’s handling of security at the rally.

At Thursday’s hearing, Rowe called the events surrounding the assassination an “abject failure.”

“July 13 was a failure by the Secret Service to adequately secure the Butler Farm Shows grounds and protect President-elect Trump,” Rowe said. “This dismal failure has highlighted critical gaps in the Secret Service’s operations, and I recognize that we have failed to meet the expectations of the American public.”

Rowe offered condolences to Comperatore’s family and outlined a series of changes his agency has made since the attack in July, including creating an aviation unit to carry out drone surveillance of protected areas and streamlining communications with local authorities.

“Let me be clear: There will be accountability, and that accountability will be implemented,” Rowe told the task force. “It is important that we recognize the gravity of our failure. Personally, I bear the burden of knowing that we almost lost a protector and our failure cost the life of a father and husband.”

Since its creation in July, the task force has conducted 46 interviews and reviewed about 20,000 pages of documents, Kelly reported Thursday. The task force is expected to publish a final report on its findings in the coming days.