Acting Director of the Secret Service Ronald Rowe and Deputy Director of the FBI Paul Abbate are scheduled to testify Tuesday about the assassination attempt at a Donald Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this month.
Both officials have been grilled by lawmakers about the security at the venue and the status of the investigation into the July 13 attack in which a gunman opened fire on a crowd, wounding President Trump and two others and killing Cory Comperatore.
Rowe told lawmakers he was “ashamed” of the security failures that day and said he visited the scene of the shooting as one of his first acts as acting chief.
“I went to the roof of the AGR building where the gunman fired his gun and lay face down to get a sense of the situation. What I saw left me ashamed,” Rowe said in his opening statement. “As a career law enforcement officer and a 25-year veteran of the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that rooftop was not better secured.”
“To prevent similar lapses in the future, I have instructed my staff to ensure that event venue security plans are thoroughly reviewed by multiple experienced supervisors before implementation,” he added. “It is clear that security at the Butler event venue could have been strengthened with other enhanced protection measures.”
Here are some key moments from the hearing.
The Secret Service was unaware of the gunman on the roof until the shots were fired.
Lowe, who took over as director of the Secret Service after Kim Cheatle resigned earlier this month, testified that Trump’s security force had “no knowledge” that there was an assailant with a gun on the roof before shots rang out.
“My understanding is that the officers were not aware that the suspect had a gun until they heard the shots,” he said. “They were aware that local police had been searching for a suspicious person prior to the shots being fired.”
In dramatic fashion, he also showed photos of where a local sniper team was supposed to be positioned and footage of investigators re-creating the shooter’s position.
Rowe also said that if police had had “more information” about the 30 seconds between when it was discovered the gunman had been on the roof and when he opened fire, they could have acted “more quickly.”
“That information seemed to be stuck or siloed in state local channels,” Rowe said.
Lowe said it was great that there was text messaging but that more “wired” communication was needed, meaning more radio communication, which appeared to be lacking on July 13.
Rowe lost sleep over whether he could have prevented the attack.
The head of the Secret Service said that better cellphone communications on July 13 might have allowed the anti-drone system to be activated sooner and potentially thwarted the attack.
“It’s keeping me up at night worrying about what the perpetrator’s ultimate outcome will be,” Rowe said.
Rowe said he addressed situations where a drone might have been able to spot the gunman before the shooting.
“What would have happened if we had been able to locate him because that counter-UAS platform was up and running? That’s something I’ve had a hard time figuring out,” he continued. “I can’t explain it, but I think maybe we could have found him. We could have stopped him on that particular day. He would have decided that today was not the day to do it because the police had just spotted me flying a drone.”
The anti-drone system was down for about two hours and came back online at 5 p.m. ET, Rowe testified.
The gunman had flown his own drone near the scene hours before the shooting.
Shooter’s motive remains unknown, social media accounts discovered
In his opening statement, the FBI deputy director said the investigation remains focused on determining a motive, identifying co-conspirators and determining the timeline of the shooter’s actions.
“So far, nothing has been ruled out, but the investigation has not identified a motive, co-conspirators or anyone with advanced knowledge,” Abbate said.
Abbate also told council that they recently discovered social media accounts dating from 2019 to 2020 that appear to belong to the shooter, but Abbate described them as preliminary.
“More than 700 comments were posted from this account,” Abbate said. “Some of these comments, if ultimately attributed to the shooter, are extreme in nature and appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant themes that encourage political violence.”
Lowe was held accountable amid fierce debate
Rowe told lawmakers that the administration was taking “immediate steps” to avoid a repeat of the fiasco at Trump’s rally, including expanding the use of unmanned aerial systems to inspect unsecured areas, improving on-the-ground communications with local partners and increasing the number of security guards to deal with the heightened security environment.
Rowe also said he had heard calls for “accountability,” noting that the Secret Service was investigating the actions and decision-making of its agents leading up to the rally.
“If this investigation reveals that Secret Service employees violated agency rules, those employees will be subject to disciplinary action,” he said.
Senators from both parties said there needed to be “personal accountability” for who was responsible for what in the shooting.
In one particularly heated exchange between Republican Sen. Josh Hawley and Rowe over why certain people have not been relieved of their duties, Rowe and Hawley raised their voices, saying Hawley was focusing on certain people, not the overall failure of the investigation.
“On the face of it, someone screwed up? The former president was shot,” Hawley argued.
“Sir, this could have been the Texas School Book Depository,” Rowe responded. “I’ve lost sleep over the last 17 days about it,” Rowe said, referring to the building where Lee Harvey Oswald was located during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
“Then fire somebody!” cried Hawley.
“Senator, I will not jump to judgment and I will hold people accountable. I will act in good faith, I will not jump to judgment and I will not falsely prosecute,” Rowe responded, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
FBI deputy director says President Trump was shot
Senator John Kennedy pressed Abbate on what it was that shocked Trump.
“Is there any doubt in your mind or in the collective mind of the FBI that President Trump was shot in the ear by an assassin?” Kennedy asked.
“Senator, the FBI has absolutely no doubt. There is no doubt. There has never been any doubt as to whether former President Trump was shot and suffered an injury to his ear,” Abbate said.
Last week, the FBI issued a statement stressing that the bullet that struck Trump was “a whole or fragmented bullet fired from the deceased suspect’s rifle.”
Abbate reiterated his insistence on Tuesday that it was “100 percent” a gunshot.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
