Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) got candid with Jesse Watters on Monday about the Trump assassination attempt.
On the show, Hawley told host Jesse Watters that whistleblowers provided him with information about the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) lead site agent at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
During the rally, while perched on a slanted roof over Trump, gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks shot him in the ear and murdered one audience member. He also hurt two others before being killed by Secret Service agents.
The incident has led to a new round of high-level examination from both Republicans and Democrats against the Secret Service over the past few weeks.
Hawley argued that the senior site agent, who was supposed to be present during traveling with a U. S. dignitary overseas – like in this case the secretary of state – had been identified as inexperienced and “incompetent.”
“The site agent, the lead agent, was known to the Trump campaign to be inexperienced, to be ineffectual, to be, frankly, incompetent at their job,” Hawley said. “I’m also told by whistleblowers that on that day, she was not enforcing the normal security protocols.”
“She was not checking people’s IDs. She did not use Secret Service agents,” Hawley added. “Most of the agents there that day were not Secret Service agents. They were Homeland Security agents.”
Hawley indicated that some of the Secret Service agents are not pleased with how the agency handled the shooting.
“Whistleblowers are coming forward from the Secret Service because they can’t believe what leadership is doing,” Hawley said. “They cannot believe that Secret Service is not taking action to clear out the rot.”
“Frankly, they’re scared to death [that] this is going to happen again. We can’t let it happen again. We’ve got to get the facts,” the Republican concluded.
After the interview, Hawley posted on X about a blistering letter he’d sent to Secret Service acting director Ronald L. Rowe on Monday. “I urge you to suspend the lead site agent from all Secret Service duties immediately while these claims are investigated,” Hawley wrote.
