Rand Paul [Hearing on Security Failures leading to Assassination Attempt]: Why were the AGR grounds and the roof left unattended? Why was the AGR building, the shooter's perch, left outside the perimeter? Local law enforcement told my staff that they specifically flagged the vulnerability of the building to the Secret Service, and were told that it would be taken care of.

Secret Service Acting Director Rowe: One of my first actions as acting director was traveling to the Butler Farm Show site to better understand how our protection failed. I went to the roof of the AGR building, where the assailant fired shots, and I laid in a prone position to evaluate his line of sight. What I saw made me ashamed. As a career law enforcement officer, and a twenty-five year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.

Rowe [Secret Service Acting Director]: Our Pittsburgh Field Office staff, they are wearing this harder than anybody right now in the Secret Service. They feel completely demoralized.

Paul: How often has this happened at other rallies, where there's a half a dozen pictures, and ninety minutes of people talking about a suspicious person?

Rowe: At rallies, there are people that come to the attention of law enforcement for a variety of reasons…this happens, and that's why we attempt to locate them….local law enforcement did their very level best to try to locate him, they did provide us the photos thirty minutes prior, it's just he evaded any detection by law enforcement.

Klobuchar: There are some people that think all kinds of conspiracies went on within the government, which is also false.

Grassley: I made public, documents that show Secret Service deployed a counter, unnamed ariel system operator on July 13th. According to the Secret Service, the drone system was supposed to be operational at three pm that day, however we've been told by Secret Service, that because of cellular bandwidth problems, it wasn't operational until about 5:20 of that day. If the system was operational, Secret Service would have had the ability to detect the shooter and his own drone use. Why is the Secret Service dependent upon local cellular network? Does the Secret Service have a backup plan in place?

Rowe: That is something that I briefed in the closed door, and something that has cost me a lot of sleep…I have no explanation for it.

Abbate: We don't have definitive evidence yet as to how he got the rifle up there [to roof]. Based on everything that's been collected thus far, photos, video, eyewitness accounts; we do believe he likely had it in the backpack…the rifle would not have fit fully in his backpack to be concealed in whole…it's possible that he broke the rife down, though we don't have conclusive evidence of that, and took it out of the bag on the roof in those moments before, and reassembled it there.

Rowe: Had we known that there was a dangerous individual out there, we would never let a protectee go out on stage.

Cornyn: Director Rowe, can you explain why the shooter's drone worked?

Rowe: Because there was no counter UAS present, sir.

Cornyn: Well, you had a drone system, but you had bandwidth problems. The bandwidth apparently was adequate for the shooter's drone, but not the Secret Service. Can you explain that?

Rowe: I have no explanation for it, sir.

Cornyn: Does the Secret Service have jamming capability for drones?

Rowe: We have technical security measures to address I think what you're asking me.

Cornyn: Can you take down a suspicious drone…you have the capacity to stop a weaponized drone?

Rowe: We have technical security measures that we utilize at permanently protected sites. We also have the ability, in a limited fashion, at temporary sites. On this day, the counter UAS system had technical difficulties and did not go operational until after five o'clock.

Lee: Why was President Trump allowed to take the stage at 6:02 pm, exactly seventeen minutes after multiple suspicious person reports were provided, complete with photos and information suggesting that the assailant had a range finder, something that ordinary people don't use in this kind of circumstance?

Rowe: It was suspicion, not weapon, or there was never communication that there was an individual with a gun, or a threat, or other bad intentions.

Lee: Multiple requests were made by Trump's protective detail, and by Trump's campaign team, to the Secret Service, for additional resources. I'm told that those were denied. As I recall, the Secret Service spokesperson initially denied that such requests were made and denied. Why not tell the truth from the outset? What were they trying to do there?

Rowe: I don't think there was any intention to mislead.

Lee: Seems like a pretty material fact, doesn't it? Will you commit to us in writing, what requests were made, by whom, and to whom, and when they were denied?

Rowe: I will, sir.

Rowe: No information regarding a weapon on the roof was ever passed to our personnel.

Lee: How is that even possible?

Rowe: Information that was in local law enforcement channels, but did not cross over and make it to Secret Service awareness.

Hawley: Why is there not a Secret Service counter sniper there with clear line of sight? That roof has a clear line of sight to the former president. Why didn't you put a Secret Service counter sniper there?

Rowe: The Secret Service's counter sniper role is to neutralize those threats that are looking in on us from where the protectee is, not necessarily-

Hawley: You think you might want to revise that protocol in light of what happened here?

Rowe: They were protecting the principal-

Hawley: The principal got shot.

Hawley: Whistleblowers tell me that, in fact, law enforcement were stationed to be on that roof, and that law enforcement abandoned their posts because it was too hot. Is that accurate?

Rowe: Senator, I have heard that as well, uh, again, uh, they posted up inside. And I think moving forward, as I said earlier, we're going to ensure that state and local counter snipers are on roofs.

Hawley: Do you know that to be a fact? Was somebody posted to the roof, local law enforcement or whomever?

Rowe: I do not know that to be a fact.

Hawley: Can I ask you why you don't know that?

Rowe: We are looking at this, and they should have been on that roof, and the fact that they were in the building is something that I'm still trying to understand.

Hawley: I just want to express my frustration that seventeen days, or whatever it's been, that whistleblowers are telling us more than you are, and you don't know, you haven't ascertained, if there was supposed to be law enforcement on the roof. That seems like a pretty basic fact. I'm also told that local law enforcement suppliers offered the Secret Service drones, and you declined them. Is that true?

Rowe: I've been very transparent and forthcoming.

Hawley: Your agency has not been transparent and forthcoming, so let's not go there.

Rowe: I have been forthcoming.

Hawley: That remains to be seen. You've been on the job a few days, so far you've fired nobody. The drones. Were you offered drones?

Rowe: There was an offer to fly a drone on that day.

Hawley: And why did you deny it?

Rowe; I think the ability of local law enforcement to provide an asset; we probably should have taken them up on it if it was offered.

Cruz: 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. Did the same person who denied the request for additional security to President Trump, also repeatedly deny the rrequest for security to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father was murdered by an assassin, and whose uncle was murdered by an assassin? Did the same person make that decision?

Rowe: Secret Service Agents are not political.

Cruz: Leadership appointed by the president is political. Did the same person deny the Trump request that also denied thr RFK request? Yes or no?

Rowe: That is not a yes or no question.

Marshall: Would you also disagree with me when it's reported that almost fifty percent of the rank and file officers don't trust leadership within the Secret Service?

Rowe: It's the right of every worker to talk bad about their boss.