Morning Report — Secret Service admits slew of mistakes at intense hearing
Glaring security failures by the Secret Service allowed a 20-year-old Pennsylvania gunman armed with an AR 15-style rifle to elude law enforcement even after he was seen on campaign rally grounds and identified as suspicious. He gained access to an unprotected warehouse roof, fired eight sharpshooter shots, struck former President Trump in the ear, killed...
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Glaring security failures by the Secret Service allowed a 20-year-old Pennsylvania gunman armed with an AR 15-style rifle to elude law enforcement even after he was seen on campaign rally grounds and identified as suspicious. He gained access to an unprotected warehouse roof, fired eight sharpshooter shots, struck former President Trump in the ear, killed a rallygoer and wounded two others before a Secret Service sniper killed him.
The Secret Service expected local counter-snipers to protect the warehouse roof where the gunman took up his position on July 13. They did not.
“They should have been on the roof,” Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe told angry senators during a hearing Tuesday.
Rowe, who has been in the acting position for a week following his predecessor’s resignation, acknowledged his agency may have failed to make that expectation clear to the local counter-snipers.
A cascade of mistakes and security gaps amounted to “a failure of imagination,” Rowe told senators.
The shooter’s weapon was not seen before he was on the roof. His access to the roof was not detected until minutes before he fired his weapon. He surveilled the rally with a drone beforehand and was not caught. Secret Service and local law enforcement communications were not in sync. And the gunman’s motive remains unclear.
“I have lost sleep over that for the last 17 days, just like you have,” Rowe said during a tense and emotional exchange with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who questioned why no one in the Secret Service had been fired. “People will be held accountable and I will do so with integrity and not rush to judgment and put people [out there to be] unfairly persecuted,” Rowe said.
The Hill: Embattled Secret Service faces tough questions.
▪ The Secret Service was unable at Trump’s rally site to deploy a “counter unmanned aerial system” ahead of time because of cellular connectivity issues, Rowe testified. Had they done so, they would have likely detected a drone flown by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks ahead of the rally.
▪ Crooks conducted “early surveillance” of the site. “I feel as though we could have found him, could have maybe stopped him,” Rowe said while reflecting on the missed opportunity.
▪ Gaps identified in Secret Service security but not specified during the public hearing are being addressed immediately.
▪ Changes in Secret Service internal communications and with local police before and after events are being changed, including putting communications over a radio channel so all personnel have situational awareness rather than focusing on siloed communications using typed text messages.
▪ Rangefinders (devices that measure distances between users and a fixed distance) will be banned at future events secured by the Secret Service.
▪ The Secret Service and FBI do not have “definitive evidence” about how Crooks got his rifle to the roof of a building near Trump while he was on stage. Officials believe the weapon, legally owned by Crooks’s father, was with Crooks in a backpack, but the FBI believes it “would have been visible” if placed in the shooter’s bag while assembled. “The rifle would not have fit fully into this backpack, concealed and whole,” FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said.
▪ Newly uncovered video shows Crooks retrieving a backpack from his car shortly before climbing up to the roof and firing eight shots. “It's possible he broke the rifle down and took it out of the bag in those moments before and reassembled it there,” Abbate said. “That's one of the theories that we're looking at.”
▪ Secret Service personnel “will be held accountable” for the security failures, including possible penalties that include termination, Rowe assured senators.
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LEADING THE DAY
© The Associated Press / Julia Nikhinson | Vice President Harris is expected to select a running mate by next week and appear in battleground states before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
CAMPAIGN POLITICS
VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS CAMPAIGNED in Atlanta Tuesday, the Biden-turned-Harris campaign’s largest rally to date. Organizers said about 10,000 people attended; in between speeches from Democratic leaders, supporters were dancing and singing along, and the rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Quavo performed and addressed the crowd before Harris spoke. She was joined by Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff (D) and Raphael Warnock (D), Mayor Andre Dickens, Rep. Nikema Williams (D) and former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Harris’s campaign sees a win in Georgia, a battleground state, as one of her pathways to clinching the 2024 election.
Harris called out Trump over hot-button issues including border security, vowing to get the bipartisan immigration legislation that was negotiated in the Senate signed into law if she is elected.
“The momentum in this race is shifting and there are signs that Donald Trump is feeling it — you may have noticed,” the vice president told the crowd. Harris also challenged Trump to debate after he backtracked from a September face-off initially scheduled with President Biden.
“If you got something to say,” she challenged Trump, “say it to my face.”
The rally marked the latest sign of the cultural momentum behind Harris barely a week into her presidential campaign.
Harris was the only candidate to earn enough delegates to qualify for the virtual roll call for the nomination, according to Democratic Party officials. It’s a process that will kick off Thursday. Harris plans campaign stops in battlegrounds states next week, including Tuesday in Philadelphia, accompanied by her as-yet-to-be-selected running mate. A week from today, the Democratic duo will join forces for a sweep through western Wisconsin; Detroit; Raleigh, N.C.; Savannah, Ga.; Phoenix; and Las Vegas, the campaign announced.
The Democratic trail:
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