Task force on Trump assassination attempt holds final hearing
The House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump held its final hearing with Ronald Rowe, acting Secret Service director, on Thursday, Dec. 5, at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington.
Following this, the task force voted unanimously to forward to the House its soon-to-be-finished final report on the assassination attempt on the now-President-elect, which took place July 13 at the Butler Farm Show grounds in Connoquenessing Township.
The task force, helmed by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, consists of 13 House members — seven Republicans and six Democrats — and was established on July 24, 11 days after the assassination attempt.
“I strongly encourage director Rowe to review the task force’s final report and act to hold those individuals responsible for the failure accountable in a way that enables the Secret Service to move forward,” said Kelly, who was present at the July 13 rally, along with other members of his family.
While the then-Republican candidate survived the shooting with only a grazed ear, rally attendee Corey Comperatore, of Buffalo Township, was killed and two others were critically injured. The shooter was eventually killed by a Secret Service countersniper.
“We did not meet the expectations of the American public,” Rowe said during his testimony. “I join you and all Americans condemning the horrific assault on President-elect Trump, Corey Comperatore, James Copenhaver and David Dutch. And I extend my deepest sympathies to the Comperatore family.”
With five months of interviews, documents and depositions collected, task force members were armed with new questions for Rowe.
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. — the ranking Democrat on the task force — expressed concerns about the culture that had developed at the Secret Service by the time of the assassination attempt. Crow mentioned that, despite numerous issues that cropped up prior to the rally, no Secret Service agents spoke up. This included a countersniper team being placed in a key position which was obstructed by a tree.
“When I was in the Army, there was this culture and expectation … that anybody could say something at any time if they saw it,” Crow said. “I’m struck by the lack of that culture on July 13. If you’re a countersniper, and you’ve been placed in a position that doesn’t allow you to see entire sectors of the position that you’re responsible for, why aren’t people saying anything?”
U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., was especially harsh on the Secret Service’s performance in July, and its negligence in addressing the issue of the AGR International building, which the would-be assassin used as a platform to fire on Trump.
“It seems almost to me like it was lackadaisical,” Green said. “It speaks of apathy or complacency that is really unacceptable in an organization like the Secret Service. It speaks to a culture with lack of attention to detail and lack of urgency. What is the command climate of the Secret Service?”
During the hearing, Kelly revealed that no Secret Service personnel near Trump on the stage on July 13 were made aware that there was a suspicious individual on the property.
“Of all the things that failed that day … that was the final failure,” Kelly told the Butler Eagle. “That is just totally unacceptable.”
During the hearing, there were questions about what the Secret Service can do to address the threat of drones flying over presidential rallies, as the gunman reportedly flew one over the grounds before the shooting.
U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., asked if the Secret Service was prepared for the possibility that a drone could be used as a weapon at a presidential rally, citing drone use in current world conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
“I want to hear from you … about the countermeasures that are available to the Secret Service to deal with drones that are used to actually conduct the attack,” Ivey said. “So not just sending information back, but as we saw on Oct. 7 (2023), could actually carry, for example, an explosive device.”
However, most of the task force members gave kudos to Rowe for his transparency and willingness to cooperate. This was in sharp contrast to a hearing in July, held shortly after the assassination attempt, in which House members from both parties grilled the then-Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle. Cheatle, who resigned shortly thereafter, was criticized for her lack of direct answers during that hearing.
“I appreciate that you used immediately in your testimony, the words ‘July 13th was a failure.’ And it absolutely was,” said U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa. “I’m thankful to you for not trying to fog it over with some euphemism that would not tell the American public what they need to know.”
The one exception to the pleasantries was a tense exchange involving U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas. Fallon got into a shouting match with Rowe, accusing the acting director of putting Secret Service agents out of position during a Sept. 11 memorial event in New York City so that he could sit closer to President Joe Biden and Vice President (and then-presidential candidate) Kamala Harris.
Rowe fired back, accusing Fallon of using Sept. 11 for political purposes.
“I actually responded to Ground Zero,” Rowe said. “I was there going through the ashes of the World Trade Center.”
The task force’s self-imposed deadline to complete its final report on the assassination attempt is Friday, Dec. 13.
Multiple times on Thursday, Kelly and Crow gave thanks to the task force’s support staff, which consists of 20 to 30 staff members who stayed in Washington, transcribing thousands of pages of documents while the task force members were crisscrossing the country.
“When people are given these opportunities, they don’t do it because it’s great pay, because it’s not great pay,” Kelly told the Butler Eagle after Thursday’s meeting. “They do it because they’re patriotic. Most people look at what happened July 13th and they’ll say, ‘How in the world did this happen?’ Well, they did too, and they wanted to get to the bottom of it, and for one reason and one reason only.
“Let’s make sure it never happens again.”
