(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The final House Task Force hearing into the Trump assassination attempts was largely lackluster, with lawmakers and Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe rehashing information that’s been public for months.
But the hearing did become heated at one point, when Task Force member Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, accused Rowe of compromising Donald Trump’s security at the Sept. 11 ceremony in New York this year.
Fallon pulled out a photo showing Rowe standing by President Joe Biden, Trump and others at the Sept. 11 ceremony. Fallon suggested that Rowe was standing where the special agent in-charge of the event’s security detail should have been standing.
As Fallon pushed Rowe about why he was at the event, Rowe pushed back, yelling at him not to politicize the 9/11 attacks.
“I actually responded to Ground Zero,” Rowe said. “I was there going through the ashes at the World Trade Center … Show respect for our Secret Service members who died on 9/11!”
Rowe further claimed that his presence didn’t compromise Trump or Biden’s security.
Fallon accused him of going to the event to raise his profile in hopes of getting the director’s job.
“You wanted to be visible because you’re auditioning for this job!” Fallon yelled.
“You’re a bully,” he added.
The task force’s inquiry is one of a series of investigations and reports into the Pennsylvania shooting that have faulted the agency for planning and communications failures. 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.
However, no agent at Butler has been fired, and numerous questions remain unanswered about that day—as well as the subsequent Sept. 15 assassination attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course.
Laurel Lee: Task Force never received troves of info from DOJ, including digital analysis of electronic devices of Crooks and Routh, 302s of the family interviews, any sort of overall financial analysis of Crooks and Routh.
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) December 5, 2024
Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., noted that while the Secret Service was largely cooperative with the Task Force, other agencies weren’t. The Task Force never received a digital analysis of the shooter, Thomas Crooks’s, online activity, nor did it receive the FBI’s memoranda on agents’ interviews with the families of Crooks and the second failed assassin, Ryan Routh.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
