Officials from local police units assigned to the July 13 rally at which former President Donald Trump was shot are pushing back against the Secret Service’s tactic of deflecting blame for security lapses at the rally.
In a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. indicated that the failure to secure the roof from which Thomas Matthew Crooks fired on Trump was not the fault of the Secret Service, according to The Washington Post.
“I cannot understand why there was not better coverage,” Rowe said. “I think this was a failure of imagination, a failure to imagine that we actually do live in a very dangerous world where people do actually want to do harm to our protectees.”
Rowe said the Secret Service believed local law enforcement had “sufficient eyes” on the outer area of the rally
“We assumed that the state and locals had it,” Rowe said.
Commander of the Beaver County Emergency Services Unit Patrick Young and Beaver County District Attorney Nathan Bible told Fox News that their snipers did as they were ordered to do.
Young said a sniper team, which included one sniper from Butler County and one from Beaver County, “were in place by Butler County ESU, which I assume was with the approval of Secret Service.”
“Their assignments that day (were) to be clearly defined and in no uncertain terms,” Young said. “Their areas included the entry control point, the area before and after the magneton monitor and then the area in front of the stage. Those are all within the interior and secure perimeter as defined by the Secret Service. That was their locations … and their priority.”
Young said one of the snipers shared a text with a picture of Crooks in an effort to alert others.
Should Secret Service leaders stop trying to shift the blame?
The Beaver County sniper later left his position to follow Crooks after he saw Crooks grab a backpack and move out of view.
The Beaver County sniper searched for Crooks while the second sniper remained at his post.
Bible said the location the snipers were assigned did not give them a good view of the roof Crooks used as a place from which to shoot Trump.
“Our guys were in a covert sniper position, you know. They’re set back a couple feet from the window,” Bible said. “So, you know, in order to see on that roof, they would have had to hang out, hang outside, and in doing so, give up their position.”
Bible added that if local officials were told to put snipers on the roof Crooks used they would have done so.
He said the snipers are upset at being faulted for what took place.
“It’s less about them getting credit … for the amazing job they did that day,” Bible said. “But they’re certainly not going to take unnecessary blame.”
“So, I do feel like … they are a little bit upset about the way that some of the information has been disseminated. But certainly … they have a job to do, and you know if they’re asked to do it again, I’m sure that they will,” he said.
In his appearance before senators, Rowe said the Secret Service was never informed about a suspicious person at the rally.
That contradicts a report from The New York Times that said based upon a review of text messages from that day, “[a] Beaver County countersniper shared two photos of Mr. Crooks with his colleagues at 5:38 p.m., which were then relayed to the Secret Service, through a series of steps in the command center.”
