The House Assassination task force released its final and long-awaited report on Tuesday.
The 180-page report states that the deadly shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 was “preventable and should not have happened.”
It was released just days after his last public meeting last week, where acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe got into a shouting match with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas).
Rowe acknowledged at the hearing the agency’s “abject failure” in the July shooting.
The 13-member panel was created by a House vote shortly after the first assassination attempt over the summer. And a few months later they were asked to investigate the second incident as well.
The group concluded that there was not a single failure that allowed shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot Trump, but rather “several” decisions and moments that created an ideal situation for the assassination attempt.
The Donald Trump Attempted Assassination Task Force released a series of recommendations that it believes will help prevent future incidents.
Task force members visited both sites where the men attempted to eliminate the former (and now future) president.
The House Assassination Task Force published its final report on the two attempts on Donald Trump’s life
The task force said it conducted 46 interviews and reviewed 18,000 pages of documents.
Crooks, who was 20 when he was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper, killed one rally attendee, wounded two others and was able to hit Trump in the right ear before being neutralized by the former president’s protective gear.
“(T)he former president, and everyone present at the campaign event, were exposed to grave danger,” the committee wrote.
“On the contrary, the events that took place on September 15, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida, demonstrated how properly executed protective measures can thwart an assassination attempt,” they added.
The bipartisan task force was created to investigate the July 13 attack that came within inches of taking Trump’s life.
But when a second murder plot was foiled just two months later, on September 15, the panel was asked to include that incident in its investigation as well.
While Crooks was able to approach Trump to within just several hundred feet with a rifle and fire several shots, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, didn’t even fire a shot before a Secret Service agent opened fire in his direction.
Routh was stationed outside Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, in the bushes, when he pointed the muzzle of his firearm through the fences and bushes.
An officer surveying the green a few holes ahead of the then-2024 presidential candidate saw the range and fired in the direction of the threat. Routh fled the scene but was captured shortly after and taken into custody.
His firearm, backpacks with bulletproof material and a GoPro camera were recovered from the place where he had been camping since midnight.
The Assassination Task Force said the second incident was an example of what the Secret Service should do to better protect its charges.
While the first assassination attempt was used as an example of how a series of failures can lead to a deadly situation.
The report comes just days after his final hearing, which unfolded when Rep. Fallon had a heated exchange with Acting Director Rowe.
A passionate shouting match broke out after Fallon struck a chord when she pressed Rowe about the security measures put in place to protect Trump, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at this year’s 9/11 commemoration.
This led to a bitter argument between the two men at Thursday’s hearing, which was supposed to focus on security failures surrounding Trump’s protection team.
But the conversation turned to what Fallon considered another Secret Service security problem two months after the first attempt and just days before the second.
Fallon said the agent in charge of the detail should have been stationed physically closer to Trump, Biden and Harris when they all attended a 9/11 commemoration event at Ground Zero.
When asked why the SAIC was out of range, Rowe insisted that he and other members of the task force were out of sight of the image Fallon had blown up to display at the hearing.
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) got into a shouting match with Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe during the final hearing of the House Assassination Task Force.
“Don’t invoke 9/11 for political purposes, Congressman,” Rowe yelled at Fallon during a volley of shouting matches after the lawmaker showed an image of the acting director on duty at Ground Zero this year.
“That’s the day we remember the more than 3,000 people who died on 9/11,” Rowe said, beginning to raise his voice.
‘In fact, I responded to Ground Zero. “I was there digging through the ashes of the World Trade Center,” he continued.
When Fallon attempted to intervene, Rowe did not back down, causing the congressman to begin yelling.
‘I’m not asking you that. I’m asking you, were you the special agent in charge? You weren’t,” Fallon accused.
‘Don’t invoke 9/11 for political purposes, Congressman!’ Rowe was heard shouting amidst a flurry of cross-screams.
‘I’m trying to ask a question. Don’t try to intimidate me!’ Fallon yelled and pointed at the witness.
‘You are out of line, Congressman!’ Rowe responded. “Very out of place.”