Say, remember when Kimberly Cheatle tried dodging questions about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in congressional testimony and ended up resigning? Her replacement, acting director Ronald Rowe, showed up at the Senate today to take questions about the failures that allowed a local nutcase to gain access to a rooftop 130 yards away from the stage and fire eight shots at Trump, wounding him and killing Corey Comparetore.

Rowe showed up prepared to provide solid answers about what transpired, who was responsible, and how the Secret Service issued false declarations in the hours and days after the attack. Ha! Just kidding. Rowe followed the same obfuscatory strategy that Cheatle tried, and Sen. Ted Cruz wasn't having any of it:

"I believe that Secret Service leadership made a political decision to deny these requests."

Things get HEATED when Sen. Ted Cruz presses the acting Secret Service director on the Trump team’s requests for additional security. pic.twitter.com/rkFcNfXFU1

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 30, 2024

We are now more than two weeks past the assassination attempt. The US Secret Service has had plenty of time to get answers to these questions; the issue of conflicts over the requests for more resources came up within hours of the attack. The USSS also has had plenty of time to get the name of the people responsible for the false denial highlighted by Cruz here and hold them accountable. 

Rowe apparently doesn't have any interest in accountability. And he seems pretty angry about Congress demanding it, too. 

Sen. John Kennedy didn't get answers to the more basic question in the assassination attempt. How, Kennedy wonders, could the snipers have missed Crooks climbing onto the roof?

"How could they not see him!?"

Acting U.S. Secret Service Director claims counter snipers did not see the would-be Trump assassin until he fired his first few shots, denying reports he was spotted 20 mins prior. pic.twitter.com/WNLepkq8or

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 30, 2024

It's not just the 20-minute issue, which Rowe doesn't do much to answer. Spectators were trying to alert police when Crooks started climbing on the roof, where he would have been visible from the sniper positions. Wouldn't that activity have caught their attention, regardless of whether the people on the ground got the attention of police at that same time? Kennedy's correct about the positioning of those snipers and their vantage point to Crooks' position. If the snipers didn't see Crooks until he started shooting, why didn't they see him? Their mission was to watch for threats that could emerge before those threats took action. 

Sen. John Cornyn also got a few "no explanation" answers from Rowe, and not much else:

And this raises more questions than it answers:

CORNYN: “Why would the President be allowed to take to the stage while a suspicious person had been identified and before the Secret Service or local law enforcement were able to investigate the circumstances?”

ROWE: “At that time, Senator, suspicion had not risen to the level of threat or imminent harm.”

Well ... why not? And given that he'd been identified as at least suspicious, why didn't the snipers scrutinize the vulnerable and unsecured positions, such as that rooftop?

At least Kennedy got a straight answer from the FBI's deputy director on the wound to Trump's ear. After Christopher Wray suggested that the FBI didn't know for sure that it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit Trump's ear, Paul Abbate testified that the FBI has "absolutely no doubt" that it was a bullet:

Sen. John Kennedy: "Is there any doubt in your mind or in the collective mind of the FBI that President Trump was shot in the ear by a bullet fired by the assassin?"

FBI Deputy Director: "There is absolutely no doubt in the FBI’s mind [...] There never had been."

Sen. Kennedy:… pic.twitter.com/vNY7QKvsKM

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 30, 2024

If "there never has been" any doubt about that, why did Wray testify otherwise? Perhaps the same committee will demand Wray answer that question. 

The hearing will continue, and apparently so will the Secret Service's lack of accountability for the failures of July 13. Rowe's defensive dissembling does nothing to restore confidence in an agency that failed in its most basic tasks in Butler County, and apparently won't set any disincentives against further failure.