Secret Service leader, GOP rep get into shouting match over 9/11 questioning

(The Hill) – Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe and Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) engaged in a shouting match that persisted over gavel banging, as Rowe accused the lawmaker of politicizing the Sept. 11 attack.

The Republican hit a nerve with Rowe when he began asking about security planning ahead of a 9/11 memorial held at ground zero on Sept. 11 this year.

Fallon, holding a picture of President Biden and President-elect Trump, asked about Rowe's appearance in the photo behind both men, suggesting that by being there he had bumped some members of the protective detail.

Rowe responded that Fallon’s photo cropped out the members of the protective team there to secure the event.

“That is the day where we remember the more than 3,000 people that died on 9/11. I actually responded to Ground Zero. I was there going through the ashes of the World Trade Center,” he said, telling Fallon he attended the ground zero event to “show respect” for a Secret Service agent that died in the attack.

That ignited yelling from both men, making it difficult to discern what each was saying even as the shouting persisted for about a minute. Chair Mike Kelly’s (R-Penn.) repeated banging of the gavel failed to restore silence.

“Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes,” Rowe shouted at Fallon.

Fallon responded, “Don’t try and bully me.”

Approached by The Hill after the exchange, Rowe said only, “What I said was on the record.”

Fallon first pressed Rowe on his actions as deputy director, his position when an attempted assassin shot President-elect Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania, the focus of Thursday's hearing. Fallon pointed out that Rowe waited days to visit the site and meet with agents who were on the ground.

Speaking with reporters once Rowe had left, Fallon said the Secret Service agent who brought the 9/11 photo to his attention had implied that the leader inappropriately scuttled the security team.

“He didn't need to be an interloper and interfere with the protection of the president of the United States and the vice president,” Fallon said, adding that the special agent in charge of the event should have been in that spot, standing there with a bulletproof vest and weapons in the event they needed to be a protective shield or return fire.

“Suddenly he's not where he's supposed to be, because his boss told him to move down the line. … Did he have a vest on that day? I don't think he did, but I didn't get to ask the question, because he blew up like a child.”

Fallon later added that he wants Rowe “gone.”

“I'm not upset that he was there,” Fallon said, adding that he could have attended the event as a dignitary. “I'm upset that he was interfering with the protection of the president.”

Rowe is typically cool and collected during public appearances and has also been vocal in acknowledging the failures of his agency on July 13, when a gunman struck Trump's ear and killed a man in the crowd, and the need for reform.

His predecessor atop the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned shortly after the attack as lawmakers criticized her for not being transparent.

Rowe was deputy director at the time of the shooting, but visited the site swiftly after being promoted to the acting role, about 10 days after the attempted assassination.