As my RedState colleague, Bob Hoge reported earlier, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe has been on the hot seat this week while testifying before both the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees.
The hearings revolve around the agency's abject failures before, during, and after the July 13th assassination attempt on 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, an attempt on the former president's life that was only thwarted thanks to a turn of Trump's head at the very last second.
"What I saw made me ashamed," Rowe, who took over after director Kim Cheatle resigned in disgrace, said in his opening statement in front of the joint committee. "I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured to prevent similar lapses from occurring in the future."
Perhaps Rowe was hoping the appearance of contriteness would soften the anticipated blows from committee members. If he was, he was sadly mistaken, as evidenced by how Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) ripped him to shreds over the fact that it is 17 days later and no one from the agency has been relieved of duty in the aftermath of the assassination attempt that left one Butler rally attendee, retired fire chief Corey Comperatore, dead and two others injured in addition to Trump:
Hawley appeared incredulous when Rowe indicated that the people who made decisions about the security perimeter at former President Trump's Pennsylvania rally and others involved with the communications breakdown had not yet lost their jobs.
"What more do you need to investigate?" Hawley demanded.
Rowe protested that Hawley was asking him to make a "rush to judgement" without thorough investigation of what happened.
"I will not rush to judgement. People will be held accountable," Rowe said.
But Hawley countered, "Is it not prima fascia that somebody has failed? The former president was shot.”
Watch below as Hawley cites some of the multiple failures and repeatedly asks if any of those responsible for those failures have been fired:
If Rowe thought that was bad, wait until the Senators on the panel get word of the new report that alleges Rowe "was directly involved in denying additional security resources and personnel, including counter snipers, to former President Trump’s rallies and events – despite repeated requests by the agents assigned to Trump’s detail" going as far back as two years.
"It was Rowe’s decision alone to deny counter sniper teams to any Trump event outside of driving distance from D.C.," the Real Clear Politics report also claimed.