WASHINGTON — The final hearing of the House task force that investigated the assassination attempts against Donald Trump devolved into an explosive moment Thursday as the acting U.S. Secret Service director engaged in a screaming match with a GOP congressman.
During the hearing on Capitol Hill, Rep. Pat Fallon, of Texas, began his line of questioning by pressing acting Director Ronald Rowe about the agency’s failures to provide adequate protection for Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
Fallon then shifted to asking about Rowe’s appearance at this year’s annual Sept. 11 remembrance ceremony at Ground Zero. The congressman displayed a large image of the event showing Rowe standing behind then-presidential candidate Trump, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and then showed the same image but with a large red circle around Rowe’s face.
Fallon asked Rowe what member of the Secret Service typically stands closest to the president at such an event, to which Rowe responded it’s usually the special agent in charge of the security detail.
“Were you the special agent in charge of the detail that day?” Fallon asked.
“So actually, congressman, what you’re not seeing is the SAC of the detail off, out of the picture’s view,” Rowe emphasized, referring to the special Secret Service agent in charge. “And that is the day where we remember the more than 3,000 people that have died on 9/11.”
“I actually responded to Ground Zero,” Rowe said, raising his voice. “I was there going through the ashes of the World Trade Center. I was there at Fresh Kills. … ”
“I’m not asking you that!” Fallon yelled, cutting Rowe off as the director then shouted back about where he was that day.
“I’m asking you, were you the SAC, were you the special agent in charge?” Fallon demanded.
“I was there to show respect for a Secret Service member that died on 9/11!” Rowe screamed back as each of them pointed their fingers at each other.
“Oh, that’s a bunch of horse hockey!” Fallon said.
“Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes!” shouted Rowe.
“Don’t try to bully me,” Fallon warned as the task force chairman tried to bang his gavel for order, and was largely ignored. “I am an elected member of Congress, and I am asking you a serious question, and you are playing politics.”
“And I am a public servant who has served this nation and spent time on our country’s darkest day,” Rowe said before the congressman could finish his sentence. “Do not politicize it!”
Asked again if he was the special agent in charge at the ceremony, Rowe said he attended to represent the United States Secret Service and that “it did not affect protective operations.”
Fallon then accused Rowe of attending the event for the purpose of being “visible” and said Rowe’s presence had “endangered President Biden’s life [and] Vice President Harris’ life” by putting agents “out of position.”
“Did you have a radio with you? Did you have a weapon?” Fallon asked.
“I was there to pay respect for a fallen member of this agency,” Rowe said again. “You are out of line, congressman! You are out of line!”
Fallon’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the extended outburst. After the hearing, Fallon accused Rowe of starting the confrontation.
“Well, that’s on the director, because he started screaming, he wouldn’t answer questions,” Fallon said. He repeated his accusation that Rowe didn’t belong at the ceremony and had endangered the lives of Biden and Harris as part of a “vanity project” aimed at “auditioning” for his current position.
A spokesperson for the Secret Service, Anthony Guglielmi, said in a statement that Rowe had been invited to the Sept. 11 ceremony “to honor the victims of that tragic day, including the members of the Secret Service who were killed. All detail personnel were present and had complete access to their protectees during the memorial.”
After the hearing ended, the task force held a business meeting to consider its final report on its investigation. The panel’s interim report, which it publicly released in October, said that the Secret Service didn’t properly plan and coordinate with local law enforcement on the day of the Butler rally in July.
That lack of collaboration, it said, led to the shooter climbing onto the roof of a complex in the vicinity of Trump’s rally, enabling him to shoot at and graze the former president and kill one rally attendee before he himself was shot dead by law enforcement personnel.
