At the final hearing of the House's Task Force on the Attempted Assassination Attempt of Donald J. Trump, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe outlined changes the agency made following the July 13 incident that left Trump wounded in the ear.
Rowe told task force members that the Secret Service provided Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris the "highest levels" of protection during the remainder of the campaign and that it was "commensurate with the level of protection provided to the president."
After it was revealed that local law enforcement in Butler, Pennsylvania, was unable to reach Secret Service agents during the July 13 rally, Rowe told Congress that he required "the co-location of Secret Service personnel with state and local public safety counterparts at unified command posts."
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Rowe also said he deployed personnel to assist in the development of radio communications networks, with redundancies, at Secret Service-protected campaign sites.
"My goal is to improve our mission effectiveness and rebuild public trust. One of the key systemic changes was the directive to mandate a unified command in a singular location for all protective sites, something that was not done on July 13th in Butler," the acting Secret Service director told Congress, according to prepared remarks. "This co-location enhances our communications and intelligence-sharing mechanisms with state, local and federal partners to better anticipate threats and respond to them more swiftly."
Rowe also said that the Secret Service increased the number of special agents assigned to Trump's protective detail. The Secret Service has also expanded the use of unmanned aerial systems at venues and is expanding the use of counter-unmanned aerial systems to prevent an attack.
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The July 13 shooting at a Pennsylvania campaign rally was the most serious assassination attempt on a current or former president since President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. Following the shooting, then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle told Congress that the incident was the Secret Service's "most significant operational failure" in decades.
She resigned following her congressional testimony that yielded bipartisan calls for her to step down.
But the July 13 was not the only serious attempt to harm Trump. In September, officials responded to an armed man outside of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Authorities arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, who allegedly pointed a rifle toward the golf club while Trump was golfing.
