In an odd way, the acting Secret Service director revealed something that disqualifies him from leadership in the federal bureaucracy.
After all, a true federal bureaucrat must obfuscate and fabricate with the cool confidence of an entrenched operative who fears no consequences, particularly when answering questions from someone as lowly as a United States senator.
In a heated exchange with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at a Senate hearing Tuesday, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. showed that he could obfuscate as well as anyone in politics. But his failure to keep cool while doing so suggested repressed feelings of guilt sure to torpedo any bureaucrat’s career.
For more than seven minutes, Cruz grilled Rowe on the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. Specifically, the Texas senator focused on matters pertaining to resources and accountability.
During Congressional testimony, bureaucrats regularly stonewall elected officials with non-answers and promises of future information.
When not wasting time with platitudes about how hard everyone in their agency has worked and how much credit they deserve, bureaucrats defer uncomfortable questions with answers such as “I don’t recall at this time,” or “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” Rowe was no different.
“Secret Service leadership committed catastrophic security failures,” Cruz said in a clip posted to the social media platform X.
Indeed it did. Thus, the senator asked whether the Secret Service had denied requests for additional resources from Trump’s team.
Rowe answered by dismissing media reporting on the subject of additional requests as “not accurate.”
Should more Secret Service officials be removed from their positions?
Then the acting director began painting himself into a corner by awkwardly describing “a process that is made” before appearing to lose his train of thought while crafting the next part of the obfuscation.
Remarkably, Rowe could not say how many such requests the Trump team had made. Nor could he even confirm that he had approved an official Secret Service social media post on that topic that was sent out the day after the assassination attempt.
“I can get you that number,” Rowe replied to the first question.
To the question about approving the social media post, he answered, “I don’t know if I did or didn’t, Senator.”
See how this works?
Understandably, Cruz became frustrated. He pressed Rowe to identify the individual ultimately responsible for approving or denying security requests. But the senator got nowhere.
Finally, in the most eye-opening sequence of the entire exchange, Cruz accused Secret Service leadership of making “political decisions.”
“Who makes the decision to deny those requests? Did you make that decision?” Cruz asked.
Again, Rowe began talking about “process.”
“OK. So there’s a bureaucracy. Is there a decision maker? Give me the person that’s the decision maker. Is there one?” Cruz interjected.
“Senator, it’s a conversation,” the bureaucrat began before Cruz again interrupted.
“So let me tell you what I believe. I believe that the Secret Service leadership made a political decision to deny these requests. And I think the Biden administration has been suffused with partisan politics,” the senator said.
Cruz then asked if the same person denied security requests to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as well as to Trump.
Incredibly, Rowe responded by assuring Cruz that “Secret Service agents are not political.” Cruz asked for a name. Instead, he got another platitude.
The acting director, however, grew increasingly agitated. He even said something nonsensical about a “bicameral, bipartisan process.”
Finally, having failed to elicit a direct answer, Cruz turned to the relative size of security details assigned to Trump, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
For some reason, the line of questioning about the relative size of security details made Rowe flip into combative mode.
“Is it your testimony that in Butler, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump had the same number of agents protecting him that Joe Biden has at a comparable event?” Cruz asked.
“I’m telling you the shift, the close-protection shift surrounding him. That’s what you asked me, senator, and I’m trying to answer it,” Rowe replied in a raised voice as Cruz again tried to interrupt him by insisting — rightly — that he had received no answer to yet another simple yes-or-no question.
“Senator, there is a difference between the sitting president of the United States — ” Rowe said.
“Then what’s the difference?” Cruz replied, again seeking a specific number.
“National command authority to launch a nuclear strike, sir,” the willfully ignorant bureaucrat replied.
At that point, for the next 10 seconds, the two men began talking over one another in raised voices.
“Stop interrupting me!” Cruz finally demanded.
“You are refusing to answer clear and direct questions. I am asking the relative difference in the number of agents between those assigned to Donald Trump and those assigned to Joe Biden. I’m not asking why you assign more to Joe Biden,” Cruz said before yet again asking for a specific number.
The exchange concluded in the only way a bureaucrat’s testimony ever does.
“Senator, I will get you that number so you can see it with your own eyes,” Rowe said.
Heated exchange between Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Secret Service Acting Director Rowe.@SenTedCruz: “I believe that the Secret Service leadership made a political decision to deny these requests…”
Rowe: “Secret Service agents are not political.” pic.twitter.com/XFpD1ywlkc
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 30, 2024
Cruz also shared the entire exchange on X.
“I am holding Secret Service leadership accountable for their catastrophic security failure,” the senator tweeted.
I am holding Secret Service leadership accountable for their catastrophic security failure. pic.twitter.com/Fu2NAqQAb4
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 30, 2024
Of course, Rowe’s refusal to answer Cruz’s direct questions amounted to classic bureaucratic evasion.
Still, the acting director’s obvious agitation suggested that perhaps the task of stonewalling took a toll on his conscience, in which case we may yet discover some sign of his humanity in the repression of guilt, and from there, perhaps another giant step toward the preservation of his soul.
