Senator Hassan Presses Secret Service on Security Failures Following Assassination Attempt on Former President Trump
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) pushed Ronald L. Rowe Jr., Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service, for answers on the security failures that allowed the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump to take place and how the agency plans to address these failures moving forward.
To watch Senator Hassan’s hearing questions, click here.
“On July 13th, major failures nearly led to the assassination of a presidential candidate who is also a former President of the United States,” said Senator Hassan during the hearing. “The Secret Service has to be fully transparent about how this happened and how it’s going to change moving forward.”
Emphasizing that New Hampshire frequently hosts political rallies and acknowledging the extensive coordination and effort that needs to take place ahead of these events, Senator Hassan asked Acting Director Rowe about reports that Secret Service never met with a local SWAT team ahead of the Butler rally, and questioned the Secret Service’s protocol to ensure effective coordination during campaign events between the Secret Service, state and local law enforcement, candidate security details, and campaign event staff.
Acting Director Rowe detailed the steps that Secret Service takes ahead of a campaign event to coordinate, including meetings with local police and walk throughs of the site where the event will be held.
Senator Hassan then asked about the failure of the Secret Service’s counter drone capability – following reports that the shooter was able to fly a drone in the area near the rally site hours before the shooting – and pushed Acting Director Rowe about what changes the Secret Service will make to ensure operability moving forward. Acting Director Rowe said the Secret Service is working to build redundancy so similar failures cannot happen again.
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