Rep. Crow: Secret Service failure reveals need for resources, training and oversight

WASHINGTON  |  While the acting director of the Secret Service promised accountability for “abject failure” to secure a Trump rally where a gunman opened fire on Donald Trump, the ranking investigating Democrat said he’s optimistic in the agency’s ability to ensure safe protection of officials.

Members of a bipartisan House task force investigating the attempt on Trump’s life pushed Ronald Rowe on how the agency’s staffers could have missed such blatant security vulnerabilities leading up to that day in July.

Rowe promised accountability for what he called the agency’s “abject failure” to secure the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman opened fire from a nearby building on July 13. Trump was wounded in the ear, one rallygoer was killed, and two others were wounded.

Another assassination attempt on Trump in Florida two months later also contributed to the agency’s troubles.

Speaking to the Sentinel, in advance of the hearing, the task-force’s ranking Democrat, Aurora Congressperson Jason Crow, said there was a great deal to find fault with the Secret Service’s lapse during Trump’s Pennsylvania rally this summer.

Crow said, however, he’s confident that training, review and additional resources will allow the agency to overcome critical problems.

“Coloradans need to know that political violence is unacceptable,” Crow said about the attempts on Trump’s life. He said he is confident in the “bipartisan way this task force has conducted a serious and thorough investigation to get the answers to why this happened and how we will make sure that it never happens again.”

The task force’s inquiry is one of a series of investigations and reports into the July shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, that have faulted the troubled agency for planning and communications failures. Already, the fallout has included the resignation of the agency’s previous director and changes that increased Secret Service protections for Trump before the Republican won the November election.

During the hearing, Rowe was repeatedly asked by flabbergasted lawmakers how problems so obvious in hindsight were allowed to happen, including communications difficulties between the Secret Service and local law enforcement that help secure events and the building overlooking the rally being left unprotected.

Crow said it was “just wild to me” that at a time of such tech advances in communications that the Secret Service on July 13 was using text messages and emails to communicate in real time about threats.

He also questioned Rowe about the agency’s culture and why so many things went wrong that day “yet nobody said anything.”

Crow mentioned a drone operator who couldn’t get his drone to work and members of a counter-sniper team positioned where a tree blocked part of their view of an area they were scanning for threats. Neither spoke up.

“I’m struck by the lack of that culture,” said Crow, a former Army Ranger. “Why aren’t people saying something? It happened on numerous occasions.”

Rowe said the agency used to have a culture where every agent felt empowered to speak up when they felt something wasn’t right.

“I don’t know where we lost that,” he said. “We have to get back to that.”

Speaking to the Sentinel, Crow dismissed conspiracy theories that the Secret Service as an agency or individuals did not provide adequate protection for Trump because of who he was, personally.

“We uncovered no evidence at all that there were any changes to levels of protection or problems with self protection, based upon politics, based upon individual personality or based upon individual preferences,” Crow said.

He agreed with task force findings that the problems were primarily caused by a lack of resources, planning and oversight.

Trump has not yet named his pick to lead the agency.

A separate independent panel investigating that assassination attempt has said the Secret Service needs new leadership and that “another Butler can and will happen again” without major changes in how candidates are protected. Trump was wounded in the ear, one rallygoer was killed, and two others were wounded.

Crow earlier this week insisted that further review, increased funding, training and oversight are what’s needed to ensure proper protection of elected officials and their families.

He said the agency’s internal investigation identified failures by multiple employees.

Rowe noted that the quality of the advance work — the people who go to a location before an event and plan how the Secret Service will protect someone — did not meet agency standards.

“It is essential that we recognize the gravity of our failure on July 13, 2024,” Rowe says in the prepared remarks. “Let me be clear, there will be accountability, and that accountability is occurring.”

He did not give specific information, including, for example, how many employees might be disciplined or if anyone would be fired.

Crow also told the Sentinel he is unable to provide some specifics about the task force investigation because the information is classified, but he said that members interviewed a wide range of Secret Service agents and officials, from top-level managers to novice agents.

“The findings kind of fit in broad categories, starting with the general planning of the event, then going to the preparation of the site or lack thereof, as the case might be, and then the conduct of the actual event and actions after the attempted shooting of Donald Trump,” Crow said.

In addition, Crow said the task-force determined that “the paradigm that the service has been using for decades now “ has been essentially unchanged. He said a recommendation could be to examine and change that.

Otherwise, under-staffing and a lack of resources amid growing and changing responsibility was a clear problem.

This is the task force’s second public hearing and the first time that Rowe has addressed it in public. It is scheduled to release a report on its findings and recommendations by Dec. 13.

Many of the investigations have centered on why buildings near the rally with a clear line of sight to the stage were not secured in advance. The gunman, Thomas Crooks, climbed onto the roof of a nearby building and opened fire as Trump spoke.

Crooks was killed by a Secret Service countersniper, and Trump was surrounded by agents and hustled offstage.

The shooting also exposed communications problems between the Secret Service and local and state law enforcement officials who routinely assist the agency in securing big events.

Another assassination attempt on Trump in Florida two months later also contributed to the agency’s troubles.

Ryan Wesley Routh is accused of lying in wait for Trump on Sept. 15 in the shrubbery of one of Trump’s Florida golf courses in West Palm Beach, Florida. A Secret Service agent saw the firearm poking through the bushes and opened fire, thwarting the potential attack. Routh never fired a shot.

Crow said that incident was more of an illustration of the Secret Service agency’s success, having outed the suspect before he could attempt an assassination.

The agency has defended its response as much more in line with how its defensive systems are supposed to operate. Critics have questioned how Routh was able to camp out for so long at a golf course Trump often visited while in town.

Ever since the first assassination attempt, the Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny about its ability to carry out what’s often described as a “zero failure mission.”

Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned a little over a week after the July shooting and one day after she appeared before a congressional hearing where she was berated for hours by both Democrats and Republicans.

Rowe was then announced as the acting director.

In his statement to the bipartisan task force, Rowe noted what he has done to bring about change.

“It has been my singular focus to bring much needed reform to the Secret Service. To be an agent of change. To challenge previous assumptions,” Rowe said.

Among the things Rowe highlighted:

— The agency increased the staff assigned to Trump and expanded its use of drone technology to get a high-level view of venues.

— Secret Service personnel are required to be at the same location as state and local law enforcement while protecting someone to avoid some of the communications failures from the Butler rally.

— In a nod to the stresses on agents and officers protecting a growing list of people in an increasingly divisive political environment, Rowe said he was prioritizing mental health and wellness programs and had hired a chief wellness officer this week.