(NewsNation) — Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. called the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump a “mission failure” from the agency.
In a Friday news briefing, Rowe placed blame squarely on the Secret Service, praising local partners and noting that local law enforcement partners play a key role in the agency’s operations. Rowe also praised the agents in the field, noting that while any found to have violated policy would face discipline, he has the back of the men and women working for the Secret Service.
“Secret Service successes are largely unknown,” Rowe said. “You will only hear of our failures.”
Key issues raised were a lack of radio communications between local agencies and the Secret Service as well as a failure to maintain a line of sight on the building where the shooter was located.
Rowe noted that agents were unaware the shooter had a gun until the first shots were fired and said agents were on stage, protecting Trump with their own bodies, within three seconds of those shots.
In terms of radio traffic on the day of the shooting, Rowe noted that the Secret Service countersniper team did not have direct communication with their local counterpart. The agency was not able to access local radio networks, and Rowe said there was also a high volume of traffic over radio due to heat-related emergencies and other law enforcement needs.
Rowe announced he was establishing a task force to address the technical challenges of communication between Secret Service agents and local officers and establish direct lines of contact. He also said the agency would use drones at future events to help monitor for suspicious activity.
He did not directly address personnel concerns, noting that a mission review was underway within the Secret Service and if policy failures were found, the agents involved would be subject to internal disciplinary review.
While disciplinary actions will be on hold until the review is complete, Rowe emphasized that he would not wait for the result of that review or oversight investigations to implement agency reforms.
Trump was the target of a shooting at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally on July 13. The FBI said that the attempted assassin was Thomas Crooks, a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man. The Secret Service shot and killed him seconds after Trump was shot. The attack was the most public attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
During a joint Senate committee earlier this week, Rowe criticized local Butler authorities for a communications breakdown between agencies protecting Trump. But Pat Young, the chief of detectives for Beaver County who was tasked with securing the area around Trump’s rally, said they had no communication with the federal authorities that day.
Young insists that it was his team that spotted Crooks roughly an hour before the actual shooting took place. He said they raised it up the chain of command and said what happens beyond that is up to the Secret Service.
Meanwhile, Rowe’s testimony was the most detailed catalog to date by the Secret Service of law enforcement failings and miscommunications. While he pointedly criticized the local law enforcement during the proceedings, he also accepted blame for his own agency’s mistakes.
“What I saw made me ashamed. As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year Secret Service veteran, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured,” he said.
Rowe now says he has implemented multiple reforms since taking over as acting director last week, including mandating that every event security plan is vetted by multiple experienced supervisors before being implemented, expanding the use of aerial drones to improve visibility of roofs and dedicating more resources to improve communications at events where the Secret Service is operating. He said he’s also directed that federal and local countersnipers work together on roofs.
NewsNation digital producer Urja Sinha contributed to this report.
