'This is a failure of the Secret Service': Key takeaways from the Senate hearing on Trump’s attempted assassination

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate testified for more than three hours about the security failures that led to the July 13 shooting.

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told Congress on Tuesday that the agency failed to protect former President Donald Trump when he was wounded during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pa., earlier this month.

“This is a failure of the Secret Service,” Rowe said in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.

His appearance on Capitol came a week after Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle resigned following her own testimony before the House Oversight committee.

Rowe appeared alongside FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate, who told lawmakers that a social media account believed to be used by Trump’s would-be assassin contains posts that “appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes.”

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Federal investigators continue to search for the motive of the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by a countersniper at the rally.

Here are other key takeaways from Tuesday’s hearing:

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. testifies on Capitol Hill Tuesday about the security failures that led to former President Donald Trump's shooting on July 13. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. testifies on Capitol Hill Tuesday about the security failures that led to former President Donald Trump's shooting on July 13. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In his opening statement, Rowe said that he can’t explain nor defend why Crooks was able to gain access to the roof from where he opened fire.

“I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured,” Rowe testified.

Rowe said that he visited the rally site last week “to better understand how our protection failed.”

“I went to the roof of [the building] where the assailant fired shots and laid in a prone position to evaluate his line of sight,” Rowe recalled to the committees. “What I saw made me ashamed.”

Secret Service agents remove Donald Trump from the stage
Secret Service agents remove Donald Trump from the stage following the shooting at his rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13. (Jabin Botsford/Washington Post via Getty Images)

During his testimony, Abbate revealed that a local police officer spotted Crooks on the roof with a firearm seconds before he opened fire.

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Abbate said that surveillance video from a local business captured Crooks getting onto the roof of the building from which he staged his shooting at approximately 6:06 p.m.

“And at approximately 6:08 p.m. the subject was observed on the roof by local law enforcement,” Abbate said. “At approximately 6:11 p.m., a local police officer was lifted to the roof by another officer, saw the shooter and radioed that he was armed with a long gun. Within approximately the next 30 seconds, the shots were fired.”

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr., left, and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr., left, and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate appear before the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees on Tuesday. (Kevin Mohatt/Reuters)

The acting director testified that in those 30 or so seconds, radio communication between local law enforcement and federal agents got “stuck” and that information about the shooter on the roof never made it to the Secret Service.

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Rowe said that problems with Wi-Fi connectivity affected the Secret Service’s counterdrone operations, which weren’t working when Crooks flew a drone over the rally site earlier in the day.

He also said that the Secret Service’s radio communications from the day of the shooting were not recorded because the agency typically does not record them during events not involving the president or vice president outside of Washington. Rowe said that he has directed that the agency will be recording radio communications from all campaign events moving forward.

GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri
GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri questions acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. during Tuesday's hearing. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

During the hearing, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri demanded action over the security failures that led to Trump’s shooting.

“If this happened in the military, a lot of people will be fired,” Graham said. “And if a lot of people are not fired, the system failed yet again.”

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“We need to learn what happened, make corrective action,” he added. “But somebody’s got to be fired. Nothing’s going to change until somebody loses their job.”

Later, during a tense exchange with Hawley, Rowe said he “will not rush to judgment” amid the Secret Service’s ongoing internal investigations into the failures that day.

“Sir, this could have been our Texas School Book Depository,” Rowe explained, referring to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. “I have lost sleep over that for the last 17 days, just like you have.”

“Then fire somebody,” Hawley shot back.