Ted Cruz Unloads on Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe in Trump Assassination Attempt

#US #Sen. #TedCruz accused the U.S. Secret Service on Tuesday of making a politically motivated decision to deny former President Donald Trump extra security, exposing him to an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania earlier this #month.
"I believe the Secret Service #leadership made a political decision to deny these requests,” Cruz said during a joint hearing of the #Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees #Tuesday. “And I believe the Biden administration has been suffused with partisan #politics.”
Ronald Rowe, acting director of the Secret Service who has served since 1999 for presidents of both parties, responded indignantly to the remark in a tense exchange where he asserted, “Secret Service agents are not political.”
Cruz retorted that Secret Service leadership is appointed by the president and is therefore a political position.
Secret Service has faced withering bipartisan criticism after a gunman came within an inch of shooting Trump in the head during a rally in Butler, #Pennsylvania, just ahead of the (#RNC) Republican National Convention. Trump’s ear was grazed by a bullet, the #FBI later reported, but he was otherwise unharmed.
Kim Cheatle, who was director of the agency when the shooting occurred, faced ire from lawmakers in both parties for her role in one of the biggest security failures since the 1981 attempted assassination of #President #RonaldReagan.
Secret Service failed to prevent Thomas Crooks, a 20-year-old man, from gaining access to a roof where he had a clear shot at the former president. Cheatle resigned from her post last week.