Shouting match sends House task force hearing with Secret Service director off the rails

A shouting match between Rep. Pat Fallon and Secret Service acting Director Ronald Rowe broke out during the final hearing of the House task force investigating the two assassination attempts on President-elect Donald Trump.

Mr. Fallon, Texas Republican, accused Mr. Rowe of attending a 9/11 remembrance event for political visibility, igniting a loud, chaotic back and forth between the two men.

Mr. Fallon was the second to last member of the task force to question Mr. Rowe at the hearing.

Their exchange started normal but went off the rails when Mr. Fallon brought out a poster board with a photo of a 9/11 remembrance event with Mr. Rowe pictured standing near President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance were also pictured at the remembrance event on September 11 of this year.

He asked Mr. Rowe who is usually closest to the president, security-wise. Mr. Rowe said that it is typically the special agent in charge of the presidential detail, to which Mr. Fallon asked if that was Mr. Rowe’s position.

Mr. Rowe said the special agent in charge was just out of the frame of the picture and started to preemptively defend himself from where Mr. Fallon was going with the questioning.

“That is the day where we remember the more than 3,000 people that died on 9/11,” he said. “I actually responded to ground zero. I was there going through the ashes at the World Trade Center.”

Mr. Fallon started yelling that it was not what he was asking.

Mr. Rowe yelled back that he was there to show respect for a Secret Service member who died on 9/11, which Mr. Fallon called “a bunch of horse hockey” as the shouting match continued and the men talked over one another.

“Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes,” Mr. Rowe said.

Mr. Fallon responded he was not, saying, “I am an elected member of Congress and I’m 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. Do not politicize it,” Mr. Rowe said.

“You know why you were there — because you wanted to be visible, because you were auditioning for this job, which you’re not going to get,” Mr. Fallon said. “You endangered President Biden’s life, Vice President Harris’ life because you put those agents out of position. Did you have a radio with you? Did you wear a vest? Did you have a weapon? No.”

Mr. Rowe responded: “I did sir, and you are out of line.”

Throughout the intense argument, Rep. Mike Kelly, the task force’s chairman, banged his gavel trying to regain control of the hearing. The shouting finally ended after more than a minute, and the hearing concluded without further controversy.

The outburst appeared to frustrate other panel members who have repeatedly touted the panel’s bipartisanship, its focus on the facts of the assassination attempts and its recommendations for improvement.

Mr. Kelly, Pennsylvania Republican, spent time immediately after the exchange whispering with Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, the task force’s top Democrat. Later, Mr. Fallon came over to join in the conversation.

It was not clear what they said to one another, but Mr. Kelly and Mr. Crow both used their closing remarks to praise Mr. Rowe for his cooperation and efforts to remediate issues at the Secret Service in the wake of the assassination attempt.

Without directly addressing Mr. Fallon’s questioning of Mr. Rowe, they both said the hearing and the investigation adhered to their goal of a bipartisan fact-finding mission.

“You couldn’t watch this hearing today and see who is a Democrat and Republican,” Mr. Crow said, suggesting the public watch the entirety of the hearing.

Asked after the hearing how the shouting match over the 9/11 event conveys to the public the professionalism and seriousness of the members that the task force is trying to highlight, Mr. Crow said, “there are exuberances that occur when people get emotional about emotional issues.”

“Acting Director Rowe was a first responder on 9/11, and as a combat veteran myself I understand that there’s a lot you carry with you throughout the rest of your life when you encounter a situation like that,” he said. “So I understand those exuberances and that emotion.”

Mr. Fallon told reporters that his intention was to find out why Mr. Rowe was interfering with the positioning of the president’s protective detail.

“The whole point I was bringing up was you guys have to learn lessons from July 13 so it doesn’t happen again,” he said. “And this happened in September, and clearly he didn’t learn it.”

Mr. Fallon said he is unaware of any other time a Secret Service director stood right behind the president at an event like that.

“I don’t think it’s ever happened before, and that’s coming from the agents that were talking to our office, that talked to me directly,” he said. “The whistleblowers made a good point. I didn’t know about this, and they brought it to me, and they’re furious.”