US Secret Service chief touts reforms after Trump assassination attempts

U.S. Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe Jr. is sworn in, during a House Task Force hearing on the Secret Service's security failures regarding the assassination attempts on President-elect Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 5, 2024. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Secret Service’s acting director told a U.S. House of Representatives panel on Thursday that he has overhauled the agency's security practices after a gunman shot President-elect Donald Trump in July.

Acting Director Ronald Rowe testified to a House task force consisting of seven Republicans and six Democrats that has been investigating two failed assassination attempts on Trump during this year's presidential campaign. Things grew heated at times.

The panel is expected to vote on the approval of a final report later on Thursday.

"It is essential that we recognize the gravity of our failure on July 13, 2024. I personally carry the weight of knowing that we almost lost a protectee and that our failure cost a father and husband his life," Rowe testified.

"This entire incident represents the failure to meet the expectations and responsibilities of the Secret Service."

The Secret Service has faced questions over its staffing levels and communication capabilities following the Trump assassination attempts.

A gunman fired eight shots during a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in July, wounding Trump in the ear and killing another attendee. The gunman was shot and killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.

Two months later, a man with a gun holed himself up near a Trump-owned golf course in Florida with what prosecutors have said was an intent to kill the then-Republican candidate while he golfed.

The suspect, Ryan Routh, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges and is awaiting trial.

'ASHAMED'

Rowe earned praise from many Republican lawmakers for cooperating with the investigation, but he erupted at Republican Representative Pat Fallon after the congressman questioned Rowe's appearance at a ceremony this year commemorating the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes!" Rowe yelled, adding that he responded to the World Trade Center site following the attack and attended the ceremony to represent the Secret Service. "You are out of line, congressman."

Fallon said he was asking "serious questions" about whether Rowe was there to provide protection for high-level officials at the ceremony.

Rowe has said he was “ashamed” of security lapses surrounding the Pennsylvania shooting. He defended the agency’s response in the Florida incident, commending an agent who spotted the gunman before he could open fire.

Rowe said he has made a series of changes following the shooting, including increasing training for agents, streamlining communication with local law enforcement and boosting the size of Trump's security detail.

Rowe testified that he has sought to eliminate what he called a "do-more-with-less mindset" at the Secret Service, which he said had a "degrading effect" on the agency. He said the agency was remedying its staffing shortage of recent years and was on pace to hire 650 special agents and 350 uniformed officers in the coming months.

The rally shooting shook confidence in the Secret Service, damaging its elite “zero fail” reputation for protecting presidents and high-level dignitaries to the U.S.

The Secret Service has largely been exempt from Trump’s criticisms of federal law enforcement and vows to overhaul government, but the agency’s response to the Pennsylvania shooting drew bipartisan condemnation.

An interim report from the House task force, released in October, found a lack of planning between the Secret Service and local law enforcement ahead of the July rally.

Republican Representative Mike Kelly, the chair of the task force, credited Rowe with implementing reforms and calling out what he called a culture of complacency in the agency.

Kelly said when Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania, for another rally in October, the difference in the security posture was "like the difference between day and night."

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone, Stephen Coates and Jonathan Oatis)