Ashamed. That is how the acting director of the United States Secret Service described the mood after uncovering significant security lapses that led to the attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on July 13 at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“What I saw made me ashamed,” said Rowe, who referred to “failures at multiple levels” in testimony prepared for a U.S. congressional hearing. “As a career police officer and a 25-year veteran of the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that rooftop and perimeter were not better protected,” he stated after visiting the crime scene and climbing to the building’s rooftop from which the attacker, Thomas Crooks, 20, fired eight shots, injuring Trump in the ear, killing an aide, and wounding two others.
Rowe had taken over just a week earlier from his predecessor Kimberly Cheatle, who was the agency’s top official when the attack on Trump occurred. Republicans and Democrats subjected her to intense congressional scrutiny, during which she remained silent or answered with refusals to clarify how the event perimeter was secured.
His interim successor sought to calm the same lawmakers, who oversee the Supervisory Committee charged with clarifying the events. Rowe told lawmakers that new steps have been taken since then: “I have directed our staff to ensure that every security plan for venues hosting events is thoroughly reviewed by multiple experienced supervisors before implementation.” He also noted an increase in the number of protectees: six more since July 13, including the Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance and his family, and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
El FBI, en paralelo
While Congress focuses on the Secret Service’s actions and lapses, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), part of the Department of Justice, investigates the incident itself. The FBI has summoned Trump to testify, and he has agreed to be interviewed by agents as a crime victim, planning to appear on Thursday. “We want to hear his perspective on what he observed, just like any other witness to the crime,” said Kevin Rojek from the FBI’s Pittsburgh office in a briefing with reporters.
Two weeks on, a clear motive from the attacker, Thomas Matthew Crooks, remains undetermined. The FBI described him as “highly intelligent,” lonely, and increasingly interested in firearms. His social circle was limited, and his preparations were kept hidden. Online searches show that beyond Trump and the sitting president, Joe Biden, he had looked up dates for the Democratic National Convention in August in Chicago and even researched the recent attempt on Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, as well as studying the distance from which Lee Harvey Oswald fired to kill President John F. Kennedy in 1963.