Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, Jr. told reporters at a Friday press conference that counter-snipers had not been deployed to a Trump event until the infamous rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
“It was the first time Secret Service counter-snipers were deployed to support the former president’s detail,” Rowe said.
“That means when they put Trump on trial in Manhattan,” said Jesse Watters, “every day when he returned from court to Trump tower, there were no Secret Service counter-snipers. The whole world knew Trump’s schedule and location for six weeks in a city with thousands of windows and high rises.”
Rowe also told reporters last week the agency has yet to interview local law enforcement despite his disgraced predecessor pinning the blame on the police for security failures which left Trump wounded, two rallygoers injured, and a third one killed.
“We’ll look forward to interviewing them and definitely getting their side of the story,” Rowe promised. “This was a Secret Service failure, and so they should not be blamed. We’re not trying to shift blame to anybody.”
Ex-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said immediately after the failed assassination attempt that local law enforcement was responsible for the building from which the shooter fired, and said the rooftop was left without security because it was “sloped.”
“There’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she said.
“What I saw made me ashamed,” Rowe told senators on Capitol Hill last week without having fired anybody as acting Secret Service chief. “I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.”
Cheatle resigned shortly after struggling to answer lawmakers’ questions on Capitol Hill. Preliminary findings of an investigation into the shooting by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., found the Secret Service did not even initially plan to send counter-snipers to Trump’s Pennsylvania event, and the Republican’s campaign was repeatedly denied requests for beefed up security. Local law enforcement had also warned Secret Service about the lack of manpower to keep the former president safe at the event in Butler County.
A new poll that came out Thursday found an overwhelming majority of Americans blame the Secret Service for the security failures that jeopardized the 2024 election. According to an Associated Press survey, 7 in 10 Americans believe “the Secret Service bears at least a moderate amount of responsibility for the assassination attempt” with 4 in 10 believing the agency “bears a high level of responsibility.”
The same poll also found 3 in 10 Americans were “extremely or very confident” the Secret Service can keep presidential contenders safe.
