Trump assassination attempt hearing goes off the rails as shouting match erupts between acting Secret Service director, GOP rep

Tensions flared as Republicans on the bipartisan task force investigating the assassination attempts against President-elect Donald Trump grilled acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe during the panel’s final hearing which devolved into a fiery screaming match.

Rowe was set off by Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) who lambasted him for taking nine days to visit the Butler, Pa., site of the first attempted assassination, despite being deputy director. Rowe trekked over to the site only after he was elevated to acting director with the resignation of his boss, Kimberly Cheatle.

Fallon then presented a photo showing the acting director standing near the incoming president — without a protective agent in view — during the Republican’s visit to New York to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“Who is usually at an event like this closest to the President of the United States?” Fallon asked Rowe, pointing to the photo where Trump was seen without an agent next to him and insinuating that the acting director had wanted to stand in a place of prominence for the 23rd anniversary of 9/11. “Were you the special agent in charge of the detail that day?”

“Actually, let me address this,” Rowe replied, clearly irritated as if the rep hit a nerve. “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 added. “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.”

Underpinning the explosive confrontation were criticisms from lower-level members of the Secret Service who believed that Rowe’s attendance at the memorial last month undermined Trump’s security because it affected the chain of command, Fallon later told The Post.

“I am not asking you that. I am asking, were you the special agent in charge?” Fallon shot back during some crosstalk, his voice growing louder. “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 going to get,” he further yelled during their confrontation, accusing him of endangering lives.

“You are out of line, congressman. Way out of line,” Rowe screamed in response. “I am a public servant who has served this nation and spent time on our country’s darkest day.”

Agents had privately complained about Rowe’s attendance and argued that if something went wrong at the memorial, the chain of command may have been confused.

Fallon later told reporters he was unaware of Rowe’s history of service to the country on Sept. 11, 2001, and contended that if he wanted to attend the memorial, he should’ve done so as a dignitary instead.

He said the Texas rep also explained that he is opposed to Rowe being retained as leader of the Secret Service in the next administration after the acting director “blew up like a child” during the hearing.

“So my point in bringing it up was, we clearly didn’t learn enough from [July] the 13th where the president almost President Trump was almost killed,” he told reporters. “These are pretty high-profile folks [at the memorial[. So why are you getting in the middle of their protection? Because that’s a bunch of bulls—.”

“My prediction is come January 20th, he will not be retained as director,” he added.

Rowe acknowledged in the fiery confrontation that he wasn’t the special agent in charge that day and insisted that it “did not affect protective operation.”

Fallon was not the only rep on the bipartisan panel to poke at Rowe during the heated hearing.

“Your guys showed up that day, didn’t give a sh—. [There] was apathy and complacency, period, and that’s your mission,” House and Homeland Security Committee chairman Mark Green (R- Tenn.) raged earlier in the hearing.

“Now, I appreciate all the systems, the technology, that everybody else has asked about, but this is a leadership issue. This is a command climate issue, a culture issue.”

Unlike with Fallon, Rowe was able to defuse Green’s aggressive questioning by detailing broadly his efforts toward “reorganizing and reimagining this organization.”

Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) also blasted the Justice Department and FBI for not providing the task force with the facts they unearthed about how the would-be assassin came within a quarter inch of taking Trump’s life and the second alleged would-be assassin that was stopped in September.

“The Secret Service provided us a great deal of information about the specific things they need. The specific things that went wrong that day, communications, command and control, technology improvement,” she told reporters after the hearing.

“But what we don’t have is equally important. And the Department of Justice to this point, has not provided this task force with information about the digital devices, what the … would-be assassins were looking at who they’re affiliated with,” she continued listing off some examples of details that weren’t provided.

The FBI and DOJ have cited the ongoing nature of the investigation as a rationale for not being forthcoming with those details per longstanding policy, though FBI Director Christopher Wray notably broke precedent in a July hearing to share details about Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, having searched “How far away was [Lee Harvey] Oswald from [President John F.] Kennedy?” on Google seven days before he shot Trump in the right ear.

Secret Service counter-snipers fired and killed Crooks with a single bullet seconds after the gunman began shooting.

The rest of the task force’s final hearing was cordial, with members rhetorically patting each other on the back, praising their staff and conveying gratitude toward Rowe for his cooperation with their investigation.

“The reason emotions are high is because we almost did have a former president, and now the president-elect literally almost killed live on television,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said after the clash between Fallon and Rowe.

“I’m familiar about what it’s like to come into an agency and clean up someone else’s mess, which is what you’re doing, quite frankly,” he added. “And so I applaud you.”

During his opening remarks, Rowe had impressed upon members of the task force that the Secret Service has “identified failures by multiple employees that warrant disciplinary action,” but caveated that it will take time before those penalties come to fruition.

“Quality of the advanced work and preparation for the Butler Farm Show visit absolutely did not meet the expected standards of this agency,” Lowe told the bipartisan task force.

“Let me be clear, there will be accountability. That accountability is occurring,” he added. “There is an extensive review that requires time to ensure due process and the pace of this process, quite frankly, it does frustrate me.”

Rowe detailed steps that the Secret Service has taken to bolster its security process, including an effort to establish “our own in-house ability to do applied research” that would further collaboration between outside agencies like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Just over a decade ago, the Secret Service underwent a reorganization effort that saw its research element largely fall by the wayside, according to Rowe who argued he is working to bring that back.

As an example of those efforts, he pointed to a Boston Dynamics-developed autonomous faux pet, named Spot, which is standing guard at Mar-a-Lago — where Trump faced a second assassination attempt on Sept. 15 — while underscoring the protective agency’s attempts to integrate new technologies as a means of bolstering security.

Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, holed up in a sniper’s nest with an SKS-style rifle at the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., but was spotted by Secret Service agents walking in front of the 45th president on the course as he played a round. Routh fled but was later apprehended and indicted for the assassination attempt.

“[What] I’m trying to do is put the ‘secret’ back in the Secret Service,” Rowe explained during his testimony before dishing on the robotic dog.

“We are using a sensor array, an autonomous robot that’s out there walking the seawall right now. It has a sensor package,” he added. “Those are the types of technologies that have been out there, that have been in DOD [Department of Defense] world for years. We need to start leveraging those resources.”

Spot has gone viral in recent weeks on social media and Vice President-elect JD Vance’s children were seen playing with it last month.

Rowe also highlighted his creation of an aviation unit to ensure that drones go up into the sky and give the Secret Service a bird’s-eye view of the scene in question — something agents neglected to do before the Butler rally.

The Secret Service is also allowing state and local partners to fly a drone as well, the acting director said.

The task force, which is comprised of seven Republicans and six Democrats, is set to dissolve within the coming days, but members contend there are still many questions left unanswered.

In October, the panel publicly divulged a 53-page interim report on the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump. The task force’s leadership indicated that the final report will be released soon, but did not provide an exact timeframe.