Acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said Monday he does not “have any information” as to whether or not the alleged assassin of former President Donald Trump knew he would be golfing.
Rowe’s remark came during a press conference at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, a day after the second assassination attempt on Trump in two months.
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“Is there any evidence to suggest that the suspect knew that Donald Trump would be on the golf course at that time, and was the golf course searched thoroughly before the former president’s arrival?” a reporter asked Rowe.
At first, Rowe did give a specific answer, saying it was an “off-the-record movement, meaning it was not on the former president’s official schedule.”
“And what I go back to is the layered approach, the elements and the methodologies of the Secret Service,” he added before lauding the agent who engaged the suspect.
The reporter followed up on her first question, again asking if there “was there any evidence to suggest that the suspect knew that Donald Trump was going to be on that golf course at that time?”
“Based on what I know now, and it’s an active investigation, I don’t have any information on that,” Rowe said.
Rowe said earlier in his remarks that the suspect did not get a shot off and that he “did not have line of sight” to Trump.
Rowe became the acting Secret Service director on July 23, just over a week after the near assassination of Trump at a rally in Bulter, Pennsylvania, on July 13. He was preceded by former Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned a day after she was unable or unwilling to answer questions from lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the failure to prevent the shooting in Bulter.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) notably blasted Cheatle during the hearing as being “full of shit today.”
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After the hearing, on the evening of July 22, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) jointly addressed Cheatle in an open letter calling for her resignation.