GOP Texas law­mak­er spars with Secret Ser­vice chief dur­ing Trump assas­si­na­tion attempt hear­ing

Fal­lon accused Rowe of putting the Secret Ser­vice detail out of posi­tion so he could sit behind Trump dur­ing the 9/11 memo­r­i­al cer­e­mo­ny in New York this year. Con­gres­sion­al aides dis­played a pho­to of Rowe stand­ing behind Trump, but Fal­lon assert­ed that Rowe should have been direct­ly next to Trump if he was the spe­cial agent in charge.

Rowe then began to dis­cuss his time work­ing on clean­ing up the after­math of the attacks, which is when the hear­ing took a turn toward chaos. 

“I actu­al­ly respond­ed to ground zero. I was there going through the ash­es of the World Trade Cen­ter,” Rowe said.

Fal­lon then yelled, “I’m not ask­ing you,” to which Rowe cut him off to yell back, “I was there, con­gress­man.”

“I was there to show respect … for those who died on 9/11. Do not invoke 9/11 for polit­i­cal pur­pos­es,” Rowe shout­ed.

“Oh, I am not,” Fal­lon respond­ed point­ing his fin­ger at Rowe. “I’m an elect­ed mem­ber of Con­gress and I’m ask­ing you a seri­ous ques­tion, and you are play­ing pol­i­tics.”

“I am a pub­lic ser­vant who has served this nation,” Rowe said before being cut off by Fal­lon, who said, “You won’t answer the ques­tion.”

“I’m ask­ing you a seri­ous ques­tion for the Amer­i­can peo­ple, and it’s very sim­ple. They’re not trick ques­tions. Were you the spe­cial agent in charge that day?” Fal­lon asked as some order was brought back to the hear­ing.

“I wasn’t. I was there rep­re­sent­ing the Unit­ed States Secret Ser­vice, sir, and that does not affect pro­tec­tive oper­a­tions,” Rowe said.

Fal­lon then accused Rowe of “want­i­ng to be vis­i­ble” when the pair began shout­ing at each oth­er again. Rowe said Fal­lon was “out of line.” When asked if he had a radio or weapon on him, Rowe said he did and repeat­ed that Fal­lon was “out of line.”

Fallon’s time to speak was then up, and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D‑FL) began his line of ques­tion­ing. 

When speak­ing to reporters after the hear­ing, Fal­lon clar­i­fied the rea­son for his line of ques­tion­ing. He accused Rowe, as act­ing direc­tor, of being there for a pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty or good optics.

“He could have been there as a dig­ni­tary like any of us do. He didn’t need to be an inter­lop­er and inter­fere with the pro­tec­tion of the pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States and the vice pres­i­dent,” Fal­lon said. “Did we learn any­thing from July 13? Which was my point to bring it up there.”

“He wouldn’t answer the ques­tions. He wouldn’t let me ask the ques­tions. Did he attend the oper­a­tional brief­ing that day? My sources say he did not,” Fal­lon explained, adding, “I didn’t get to ask the ques­tion because he blew up like a child.”

Fal­lon also claimed that some Secret Ser­vice agents had brought up com­plaints about Rowe’s pres­ence there because he was not the spe­cial agent in charge.

“My point in bring­ing it up was we clear­ly didn’t learn enough from the 13th when Pres­i­dent Trump was almost killed by doing the same thing,” Fal­lon said. 

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“So why are you get­ting in the mid­dle of their pro­tec­tion? Because that’s a bunch of b*******. He could have been there and paid his respects to 9/11 as every Amer­i­can wants to and not inter­rupt the pro­tec­tion,” Fal­lon con­tin­ued.

The Secret Ser­vice has been under intense scruti­ny from law­mak­ers after the assas­si­na­tion attempt in July for its lapse in secu­ri­ty.