Acting Secret Service director responds to critical new report about security failures
The acting director of the U.S. Secret Service said Thursday he was concerned about the morale of his overworked agents.
The acting director of the Secret Service said Thursday he was concerned about the morale of his overworked agents, as he addressed an independent review that called for "fundamental reform" within the agency to prevent assassination attempts like the one in July that injured former President Donald Trump.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Ronald Rowe Jr. said he worried about the health and wellness of “demoralized” Secret Service agents who are being pushed to the brink and working long hours amid operational and policy changes.
“We are redlining our people,” Rowe said. “We are asking them to do extraordinary things right now.”
His remarks come hours after an independent, bipartisan panel identified in a report “numerous mistakes” by the Secret Service and “deep” systemic or cultural flaws that enabled the assassination attempt at Trump’s presidential campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Trump was shot in the ear, one rallygoer was killed and two others were wounded before a Secret Service countersniper shot and killed the 20-year-old gunman.
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