It’s the job of Congress to hold hearings into important matters. Both the Senate and the House can and should do so and sometimes even jointly. The failed assassination attempt of Trump, which from the outset clearly showed lapses in what we’d expect from the Secret Service certainly is a matter of national importance. It’s also been apparent and for a long time there has been a decline in the standards of the U.S. Secret Service. Regardless of how one feels about a given President or other high level Official assassinations are nothing but bad. So are attempts. Preventing assassinations, and in fact preventing someone from even being in a position to make a credible attempt is the job of the Secret Service and something each of us should care about.
When things go as wrong as they did this summer I’d expect nothing less than tough questions to be asked of those in leadership of the Secret Service. So should you. What we should NOT expect is some asshat initiating a shouting match to engage in a level of Performance Jackassery that makes ‘Gym’ HE GROPED ME COACH!’ Jordan look timid by comparison. Yet as this article from CBS News shows that’s exactly what we’ve just gotten. There’s a video of a serious, full-blown shouting match in the linked article. It’s really quite something to watch. Here’s the exchange pulled directly from YouTube:
It seems pretty clear to me that Fallon was looking for a ‘MAGA Moment’ he could use to increase his profile. Putting up a photo of a 9/11 ceremony and making accusations of Rowe impeding proper protection of the President and others, complete with circling Rowe in the picture. Was it improper to ask who in the Secret Service would be closest to the President? I don’t think so. And, the person who should have been right there was the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the protective detail and the SAC was in fact right there – just not in the frame of the picture that was displayed.
Rowe knew what Fallon was up to so he asked that the picture be put back up so he could explain that the SAC was in fact close at hand. HE was there both representing the Secret Service and because he’d personally been part of the 9/11 response team searching through the rubble and ashes. Like all those other people behind the President who weren’t the SAC or even Secret Service Rowe was there representing a key agency/group present to mark the event and remember the victims. Fallon wanted to turn it into a political stunt and did just that.
Fallon is and has never been a shrinking violet but neither is Rowe. He wasn’t about to let Fallon use him as a punching bag so he started throwing his own and Fallon lost HIS cool. He didn’t like having someone push back, stepping on his ‘bigly’ MAGA Moment he was creating. Not that Fallon won’t get plenty of mileage out of the incident. With a bit of selective editing it will live on in infamy. However from where I sit it was a sh*t-show. Fallon wanted to sucker punch someone with a much longer history of service to this country, and a tougher guy than he is (again, it’s not like Fallon who’s a former Notre Dame footballer isn’t tough) was willing to throw punches of his own. And land them!
This is supposed to be the last of these hearings. Fallon wanted to score some points by claiming Rowe was “auditioning” to be head of the Secret Service when Trump names a new Director in January. Given he was Deputy Director at the time of Butler it’s safe to assume he always knew Acting Director was a title he’d hold only until a new Director was named regardless of who won in November. And that it wouldn’t be him. No, he’s known all along that early next year a new Director would be named and he’d head off into retirement. Fallon damn well knew this too.
Perhaps, hell probably even that’s why Rowe had no f**ks to give when Fallon tried to take a piece out of him. He had to assume one or more of the GOPers on the committee would try to do so. Rowe couldn’t have predicted exactly who and how but in this particular moment he seized the moment and took a chunk out of his would be tormentor. In the grand scheme of things with all the stuff going on it’s just one heated exchange. Unusual? Yes. But just one. However, given the inability of the about to be concluded Congress to do much and with the GOP looking at being even less capable in the Congress that will convene in January expect more of this. Perhaps even over on the more ‘genteel’ Senate side of the Capitol.
The GOP, especially in the House is licking its chops over all the bogus ‘investigations’ where they can haul people up and try to carve chunks out of them. Ronald Rowe’s last public act of service just might turn out to be showing many a witness how to fight back against GOP Performance Jackassery.
“… for a long time there has been a decline in the standards of the U.S. Secret Service.”
Yeah, I first noticed that way back around November 1963 …
At that time they weren’t the elite group they became after absorbing the lessons of their failure in the wake of the JFK assassination. Given the exposure Presidents have subjected themselves to in order to mingle directly with voters it’s rather amazing Reagan is the only one who’s actually been shot since then.
However the folding of the Secret Service into Homeland Security changed things. Under Treasury they were pure LE and had a long, long history of cooperative work with state and local LE around the country. A phone call could activate all manner of cooperation and coordination of resources when a President or almost as high an official would be out and about. It was LE to LE for pretty straightforward stuff.
DHS was formed in a panic over terrorism. All manner of agencies got folded in (FEMA? Yep although I still haven’t figured out why) and from the top down the theme has been terrorism. That changes the dynamic and complicates the mission of protection of a President or other “Protectee” at a public event. Not that terrorism concerns aren’t taken into account (they should be) but the primary function is protection during the event. Nothing else should, lacking credible intel of a specific threat should come close to that.
That’s what’s changed at least from how I see things. Before, Treasury Agents had to prove themselves in the field which meant proving ability to work well with other federal, state and local agencies. Only then would an application for something as elite as the Personal Protection division be considered. That was lost under DHS control. It’s a vast agency and lacks the tight level of supervision that division got when it was part of Treasury. The troubling results started showing up within a few years of the switch and the steady decline has continued.
“…and from the top down the theme has been terrorism. That changes the dynamic and complicates the mission of protection of a President or other “Protectee” at a public event.”
So true, Denis. My son finally got us to watch The Wire, we’re just starting Season 2. This quote ^^^ is a key to how the script in Season 2 is about to unfold. Everything changed, and not for the better, after 9/11.
One thing the assassination attempt did do was how ineffective ‘security’ can be. We have perhaps, all been conditioned by Hollywood to see ‘security’ as an inpenetrable wall, but the reality was revealed, as an untrained amateur very nearly succeeded.
Perhaps the actual, successful assassination of a very powerful billionaire yesterday shows that the ‘secure stability’ that the republicans assumed surrounded themselves is as illusory as their political support.
Ironic, really, when the potential for them being attacked successfully by unhappy fellow citizens is likely contingent on the vast numbers of lethal weapons their own policies have put into wide circulation.
They might just turn into another example of the popular meme, face meet leopard.
I’m fairly sure this isn’t the ‘2nd Amendment Solution’ they had envisioned.
way to many congress persons feel if they get loud and emotional people will cow tow to them and be humble! this display was just what was needed!