The Secret Service appears to be shifting blame for failing to prevent the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump to local cops that helped provide security at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally, multiple senators told The Washington Times.
Their comments come after acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe testified before two Senate committees on Tuesday. While he acknowledged the Secret Service failed in its mission to protect Mr. Trump, he pointed to local law enforcement when explaining why the shooter was not spotted before he could fire.
“I think they’re looking for a scapegoat,” Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, told The Times.
Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, agreed.
“This has a lot of CYA feel to it,” he said, referring to an acronym for cover your ass.
Mr. Rowe said the team leads for the Secret Service and the Butler County Police Department walked the rally site and identified nearby buildings in the AGR International Inc. complex that needed to be secured. Local law enforcement said they would cover the area, he said.
Two snipers from the Butler County Police Department were stationed inside one of the buildings at a window that was perpendicular to the adjacent building on which the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, eventually climbed on the roof and fired at Mr. Trump.
Mr. Rowe showed a poster-sized picture during the hearing of a view from that window with a yellow arrow marking the shooter’s location.
“Why was the assailant not seen when we were told that building was going to be covered?” he said, noting all the local snipers needed to do was look left.
Mr. Rowe’s presentation fell flat for senators looking for accountability from the Secret Service, which was in charge of security at the rally.
Mr. Hawley said local law enforcement disputed the Secret Service’s account, but he doesn’t know who is right because he has heard different stories from whistleblowers on both sides.
“So there’s a lot of blaming each other,” he said, noting that Mr. Rowe’s job is to get the facts and do something about it.
“What I heard yesterday was a lot of wanting to litigate who’s really to blame, ‘It’s really not us; it really wasn’t that bad.’ Oh my gosh, an American is dead. I mean, it doesn’t get a lot worse,” Mr. Hawley said. “I get the president could be dead. That’d be really, really bad. But a private citizen is dead.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, commented to Mr. Rowe during the hearing about blaming local snipers for not spotting and stopping Crooks.
“But fundamentally doesn’t the buck stop with the Secret Service?” he asked.
“It stops with us, sir,” Mr. Rowe said. “But let me just clarify, the perspective that they had on that roof … looking left, they should have been able to see.”
Mr. Blumenthal told The Times on Wednesday that “the Secret Service throwing local law enforcement under the bus [is] not only unfair, but also unwise.”
“They’re going to have trouble getting local police to cooperate if they make them the ones to blame when anything goes wrong,” he said.
Mr. Blumenthal and Mr. Johnson lead the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is part of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that is probing the security failures surrounding the assassination attempt.
The leaders of the full committee, Sens. Gary Peters, Michigan Democrat, and Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, were more measured in their interpretation of Mr. Rowe’s remarks.
Mr. Peters told The Times he is reserving final judgment while his committee interviews all parties involved in securing the event, but ultimately the Secret Service was responsible for ensuring the building, with its clear line of sight to the stage, was secure.
“In my mind, at this point, Secret Service should have been aware of how strategically significant that rooftop was when it comes to a potential threat,” he said.
Mr. Paul acknowledged “some of shifting of blame,” but said he takes Mr. Rowe at his word that there will be accountability within the Secret Service after a disciplinary investigation concludes.
“But the accountability can’t be passing the buck,” he said.
Mr. Paul also questioned the photo Mr. Rowe used to demonstrate that the local snipers could see the entire roof of the building that Crooks accessed. He said that “is not exactly honest” because the picture the Secret Service showed was taken from someone leaning out of the window.
“My staff took the pictures [and] from into the window, you see bits and portions of it,” Mr. Paul said. “They don’t look like anything like the picture he showed.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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