The new acting director of the US Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, said today that he is "ashamed" from the serious security breach that preceded the attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign event in Pennsylvania on July 13, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
In testimony before two Senate committees, acting Secret Service director Rowe said he visited the site of the outdoor rally in Butler and climbed onto the roof of a nearby building from which 20-year-old Thomas Crooks fired the shots, one of which wounded Trump in the right ear, while others killed a rally attendee and wounded two others.
"What I saw put me to shame" Roe said at a joint hearing before the Judiciary and National Security Committees of the US Senate. "As a professional law enforcement officer, and a 25-year veteran of the Secret Service, I cannot explain why this roof was not better secured," he added.
Investigators have not yet determined Crooks' motive, but FBI Deputy Director Paul Abate testified that a social media profile from 2019-2020 was recently discovered that appears to be linked to the shooter.
"There were over 700 comments posted by this account," Abate said. "Some of these comments appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigration themes to support political violence and are described as extreme in nature," he added.
Roe's admission of a serious security lapse came a week after former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned under bipartisan pressure from Congress after she refused to detail the security lapses in testimony before a House committee. , notes Reuters.