Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, questioned U.S. Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe in a hearing Tuesday.
Marshall repeatedly pushed Rowe to provide evidence that local law enforcement and Secret Service met on the days leading up to and the day of the campaign rally. The senator then asked Rowe to explain the deeper issues within the Secret Service that led to security failures during the rally.
“I think you would agree with me that there were multiple individual and institutional failures the day of this assassination attempt. You have a $3 billion budget, you’re still 2,000 employees short, and in 2022, the Secret Service had a 48 percent departure rate. That tells me you either have a cultural problem or just gross incompetence. Which one is it?” Marshall asked.
In response, Rowe emphasized the success of the Secret Service and denied the accuracy of the 48 percent departure rate statistic provided by Marshall.
“Senator, I know you’re not calling our workforce incompetent, and I know we do not have a cultural problem. If anything, we are dedicated to making sure that we don’t have mission failure. And let me get you the hiring numbers that we have because I think you will actually see that no, we’ve actually done very well, fairly recently. We’re trying to make sure that we have the numbers that we need. Of course we need more people. Everybody does. Let me get you those numbers, and let your own eyes see.”
The joint hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Senate Judiciary Committee was the latest to examine what investigators have learned about the shooter who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally, as well as the security failures that preceded the deadly shooting.
Rowe, who since 2023 had been serving as deputy director of the Secret Service, was appointed acting director after Kimberly Cheatle’s resignation.
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