Top 4 moments from Senate hearing with FBI, Secret Service over Trump assassination attempt
'Does the buck stop anywhere?'
Cruz got into a heated back-and-forth with Rowe after suggesting that the increasingly politicized leadership of the U.S. Secret Service deliberately deprived both Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of necessary protection.
Kennedy, whose father and uncle Cruz noted were both murdered by assassins, was denied the Secret Service protection typically given to presidential candidates until Trump explicitly called for it after his own near-assassination earlier this month.
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Repeated requests from Trump's detail for additional security were similarly denied, Cruz said, citing The Washington Post. Rowe pushed back against any assertion that Trump was denied resources during the day of the assassination attempt.
Cruz also pushed Rowe to explain why Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi released a statement falsely claiming that Trump's detail did not make such a request. Rowe was unable to answer whether he or his predecessor, Kimberly Cheatle, had approved the statement.
Cheatle resigned as Secret Service director last week following a widely panned testimony before the U.S. House Oversight Committee.
"So let me tell you what I believe," Cruz told Rowe. "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."
When Cruz was unable to get a clear answer from Rowe regarding whose decision it was to allocate Secret Service resources, he asked, "Does the buck stop anywhere?"
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
