Dan Proft Commentary

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In advance of Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe’s testimony this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, RealClearPolitics.com’s Susan Crabtree reported on a whistleblower email a Secret Service countersniper sent to the entire Uniformed Division calling for accountability at the supervisory level for the agency’s July 13 failure to protect Trump and his rally attendees, saying, among other things, “Sadly, we have fallen short for YEARS. We just look good doing it. I have conveyed these thoughts to not only supervisors…but to those responsible for training us…Only to be brushed off as those with less experience somehow knew more than me.”

This anonymous countersniper went on to conclude, “The motto of the USSS…CYA. And every supervisor is doing it right now.”

That email turned out to be quite prescient, given the subsequent testimony of Acting Director Rowe. One particular exchange must be shared in a bit of an extended format in order to fully appreciate how the permanent government operates to obfuscate, stonewall and end-run accountability. Here Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley interrogates Director Rowe over the decision-makers and the decisions they made on July 13. To echo the countersniper’s email and paraphrase the permanent government’s 2020 agitprop, Rowe’s testimony has all the classic earmarks of a Cover Your Ass operation.

Watch: Ronald Rowe under questioning from Sen. Josh Hawley (1:21-1:56 and 2:21-4:49)

No one is individually responsible because everyone is collectively responsible. The agency did it. Accountability theater.

Pinning the whole thing as an agency failure protects all of the individual shot callers because the former director was already offered up as the sacrificial lamb.

Yes, the lead site agent had responsibility for the sloped roof from which the assassin fired but let’s not rush to judgment.

Yes, an agent had the responsibility to ensure the interoperability of the communication systems between Secret Service and local law enforcement. Rather than interoperable, the comms were inoperable but let’s not rush to judgment.

Yes, Secret Service was alerted to a security issue of an individual with a range finder and decided not to pull Trump off stage but let’s not rush to judgment.

Yes, local law enforcement offered the use of drones as part of the security coverage for that day. Secret Service didn’t take them up on it and Acting Director Rowe said the agency probably should have but let’s not rush to judgment.

To even suggest anyone lose their job is to persecute the good men and women of the Secret Service and Acting Director Rowe won’t have it.

The sentinels of the permanent government really dig in when it comes to protecting their posts. They are significantly less zealous when it comes to protecting the people or their President.

Nearly three weeks after Trump was almost assassinated, we now know the following: one, Trump was shot. And, two, the Secret Service failed. In other words, we know no more than we did on July 13.

The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security, just as the FBI is part of the Department of Justice.

When we have a Republican President, they’re in. When we have a Democrat President, they’re in. They’re always in.

With the awesome police power at their disposal and the job security of a Chicago public school teacher, these agencies have outsized influence on the DC political culture.

When they don’t move with alacrity to gather evidence to establish a credible official story and present that case, including the supporting evidence for public scrutiny, they destabilize our constitutional republic more so than can any politician’s rhetoric or even assassin’s bullet.