New Secret Service Head ‘Cannot Defend’ Security Lapses

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. testifies before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 30, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said on Tuesday that he was “ashamed” that his agency failed to adequately protect former President Donald Trump from a would-be assassin.

“As a career law enforcement officer, and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured,” Rowe told two Senate committees after surveying the Pennsylvania site where Trump was nearly killed.