Hassan Grills Secret Service Director On 'Significant Coordination Failures' Before Trump Shooting

2 months ago

During a joint hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) questioned officials about the Trump assassination attempt, the lack of coordination leading up to the rally and the user’s use of a drone.

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Transcript

00:00Senator Hessen, recognized for your questions.

00:03Well thank you very much Mr. Chairman.

00:04I want to thank you and Chairman Derman and the ranking members for holding this joint

00:09hearing today.

00:10And thank you to our witnesses not only for being here but for your careers of service

00:15to our country and to the men and women you lead.

00:18I am really grateful that former President Trump is safe and extend my sympathies to

00:23the family of Corey Comparatore who was fatally shot at the rally and my sympathies to everyone

00:29who was injured.

00:31On July 13th, major failures nearly led to the assassination of a presidential candidate

00:37who is also a former President of the United States.

00:40The Secret Service has to be fully transparent about how this happened and how it's going

00:44to change moving forward, understanding there's also a need to balance Congress's engagement

00:51in oversight with allowing law enforcement to conduct an ongoing criminal investigation.

00:56I want to thank the agents of the Secret Service for selflessly acting to protect elected

01:01officials and their families and our former Presidents.

01:04We're grateful for their sacrifices and their service and I want to thank all law enforcement

01:09and particularly law enforcement officers and first responders who work to minimize

01:13harm to the crowd on July 13th.

01:17Mr. Rowe, I want to start with you.

01:20New Hampshire hosts many political rallies.

01:22Coordinating the speakers and attendees at these events requires extensive coordination

01:26between state and local law enforcement, the Secret Service staff, and obviously campaign

01:31event staff.

01:33As a former governor, I've experienced some of the challenges that this type of coordination

01:37can create, but we know that this coordination is really essential to public safety.

01:42It's clear that there were significant coordination failures on July 13th.

01:47You told us earlier that the local SWAT team told the Secret Service that local law enforcement

01:52had eyes on the AGR roof.

01:55But there are reports that members of a local SWAT team never met with the Secret Service

02:00in the days before the Butler rally.

02:03What steps does the Secret Service take prior to political rallies to ensure that the agency

02:08is effectively coordinating with the candidate's security details, with state and local law

02:12enforcement, and with campaign event staff?

02:16So as part of the advanced process, Senator, as happened in Butler as well, there's a police

02:22meeting, and basically that initiates the advance.

02:26That's bringing in all the not only emergency management officials, but all the state and

02:31local law enforcement agencies that may have aspects of supporting or assisting in that

02:40advance and on that visit.

02:44The focus of that police meeting, one, is to exchange numbers and business cards, and

02:48then coordinate times for walkthroughs.

02:51There were walkthroughs of the Butler farm site with local law enforcement agencies that

02:57were supporting that visit.

03:00And that was directly as a result of having that police meeting to begin the process of

03:05figuring out, dividing up the labor areas of responsibility.

03:10So what you're telling me is that at that meeting, the Secret Service, the first meeting

03:14led to the walkthrough that the Secret Service does with local law enforcement, and that

03:19at least some members or directors of the local SWAT team would have been part of that

03:23process?

03:24Well, as I understand it, the Beaver County, they were seconded to assist Butler, but the

03:31Butler ESU team were part of the advance process.

03:36How many agents did the Secret Service provide to plan and secure this event, and how many

03:41people from state and local law enforcement agencies supported the security of this event?

03:46So in totality, between state and local and federal, there were 155 personnel at the Butler

03:53farm site that day.

03:57All combined Secret Service, it's in the 70s, and then we had support from Homeland Security

04:04Investigations that were providing post standards, and then we had approximately 70 or so various

04:10Pennsylvania State law enforcement.

04:12Okay, thank you.

04:13I want to go to one other issue before my time expires.

04:18You've talked today and in our secure briefing about the interoperability of the Secret Service's

04:26counter drone capability, that it failed early on, and so it didn't catch the drone flown

04:34over the site by the shooter.

04:37First, what changes are, you've addressed this a little bit, what changes is the Secret

04:43Service making to ensure that it has backup technology, but also what efforts did the

04:48Secret Service undertake to coordinate with other law enforcement regarding anti-drone

04:52capability at the rally site?

04:58We're working to determine that right now, Senator.

05:02We're getting the redundancies in place.

05:06Counter UAS authority, it is a little complex.

05:12State and locals don't necessarily have this ability to do that.

05:16It does require coordination with the FAA because it does, it could impact commercial

05:21travel.

05:22Okay, thank you.

05:23And Mr. Chair, I'm just going to follow up, and I think one of the things that you're

05:26hearing from a lot of folks, but I'm not sure we're really clear on yet, is how is it that

05:32somebody who clearly is arousing concern from law enforcement isn't identified as suspicious,

05:42and how is it that that information doesn't get to the former president's details?

05:48So I'll follow up in writing.

05:53Senator Cornyn?

Hassan Grills Secret Service Director On 'Significant Coordination Failures' Before Trump Shooting

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