Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe and Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) engaged in a heated exchange during a House task force hearing on the agency’s response to assassination attempts against President-elect Donald Trump.
The confrontation took place as Rowe testified before the bipartisan panel investigating security failures surrounding the attacks. While Rowe defended the agency’s actions, Fallon criticized the Secret Service, accusing them of incompetence and negligence following the July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the foiled attempt in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15.
The heated exchange was sparked by complaints from lower-level Secret Service agents who felt that Rowe attending the 9/11 memorial weakened Trump’s security because it messed with the chain of command, Fallon told the New York Post about the incident.
“Who is usually at an event like this closest to the President of the United States? Were you the special agent in charge of the detail that day?” Fallon asked Rowe, referring to a photo of Trump without an agent near him at the memorial.
“Actually, let me address this,” Rowe irritably replied.
“Actually, congressman, what you’re not seeing is the SAC [Special Agent In Charge] of the detail out of the picture’s view. And that is the day where we remember more than 3,000 people that have died on 9/11.”
“I actually responded to Ground Zero. I was there going through the ashes of the World Trade Center,” he continued. “I was there congressman — I was there to show respect for a Secret Service member that died on 9/11. Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes.”
Not satisfied with Rowe’s response, Fallon fired back at the director.
“I am not asking you that,” he said, his voice rising in tone. “I am asking, were you the special agent in charge? You were not — Oh that’s a bunch of horse hockey.”
“You know why you were there, because you wanted to be visible, because you are auditioning for this job that you’re not doing to get.”
Not agreeing with the accusations, Rowe shot back, yelling at Fallon, “You are out of line, congressman. Way out of line.”
“I am a public servant who has served this nation and spent time on our country’s darkest day,” he said.
After the exchange, Fallon told Fox News’s Chad Pergram that Rowe had not answered his legitimate questions about why he was present that day. He suggested that Rowe’s presence was motivated by his desire to secure the full-time director position.
“There’s no reason for him to be there. There isn’t. Try to find a place at a time in history where the Secret Service director was that close to the president at a function or event. I don’t think you could find it,” he told Pergram.
“So, yeah, I think he was auditioning for the job, a job that I don’t believe he’s going to get come Jan. 20. I have not talked to the president about that, but I suspect that they’re going to find much better people because we need to change the culture as well.”
