Social media account with extremist comments could be tied to Trump gunman, FBI says
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The acting Secret Service director was in the hot seat in a joint hearing before two Senate committees today. They're probing the assassination attempt on former President Trump. Acting director Ronald Rowe recently climbed on the roof in Pennsylvania, where the shooter fired multiple shots at Trump.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RONALD ROWE: What I saw made me ashamed. I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured.
CHANG: NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh covered today's hearing and joins us now from the Capitol. Hi, Deirdre.
DEIRDRE WALSH, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: So I know that motive has been a huge question in this case. Did the investigators offer any new details or any new theories today?
WALSH: They still don't have a motive, but the FBI deputy director, Paul Abbate, today revealed they have found a social media account potentially tied to Thomas Crooks, the shooter. It has about 700 posts from the 2019-2020 time frame. Here's how he described those posts.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PAUL ABBATE: Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes, to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature.
WALSH: They're still confirming these are tied directly to Crooks. They're also looking at other apps he was on. It is worth noting that investigators recently did find a gaming account initially said was the shooters. It turned out not to be. You know, this is an ongoing investigation, Ailsa.
CHANG: Yeah. Well, we heard Rowe admit his shame about what had happened. Did he get into how security failed so immensely that day?
WALSH: He tried to. The acting director, Rowe, repeatedly talked about local law enforcement agents spotting crooks on the scene but said the details about his movements were siloed, stuck in a channel. It was actually a text chain that only local law enforcement agents and snipers were in. Rowe said if that information was shared more quickly over police radios, the Secret Service could have acted. Rowe said they were told about a suspicious person outside the rally but not where he was or what he was doing in the minutes leading up to him actually firing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROWE: Nothing about man on the roof, nothing about man with a gun. None of that information ever made it over our net.
WALSH: He was suggesting it was ultimately local law enforcement's failure to put somebody on top of that roof that allowed Crooks to get up there.
CHANG: Was there talk about security changes going forward?
WALSH: He said they're already making some changes. Rowe said more people need to review site plans before these types of events to avoid what he called tunnel vision. Part of the challenge in the investigation that's going on now is that Secret Service radio communications were not recorded at that Butler rally in Pennsylvania. The ones from local law enforcement radios were. Going forward, he said all Secret Service radio traffic is going to be recorded. He also talked about, going forward, law enforcement needs to be on radios, not text chains, to share information in real time.
CHANG: That's a good point. Well, did the senators seem satisfied with today's testimony?
WALSH: You know, not all of them. There were really some very tense exchanges between the acting Secret Service director and Republicans on these committees asking why more people haven't been fired at the Secret Service. Rowe said he's lost sleep over what happened, but he stressed he didn't want to have any rush to fire more Secret Service officials until this investigation's really thoroughly completed. We also know the director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned already last week. But it's become clear that that's not really enough for these senators that are doing these investigations, and we're hearing about more of these missteps.
CHANG: That is NPR's Deirdre Walsh. Thank you, Deirdre.
WALSH: Thanks, Ailsa.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIWA SAVAGE SONG, "LOST TIME")
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.