LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A congressional task force investigating an assassination attempt on President-elect Trump wrapped up its hearings on Capitol Hill. On the final day, acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe acknowledged there were security failures in July when a man shot at President-elect Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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RONALD ROWE: That abject failure underscored critical gaps in Secret Service operations. And I recognize that we did not meet the expectations of the American public, Congress and our protectees.
FADEL: The task force plans to release their final report in the coming weeks. Congressman Jason Crow, a Democrat representing Colorado in the House, is a ranking member of the bipartisan task force and he joins us to discuss the findings. Congressman Crow, thank you for being with us.
JASON CROW: It's good to be with you. Thanks for having me.
FADEL: So we just heard there Director Rowe testifying that there were security failures during this assassination attempt back in July. He also said the agency had already made changes to make sure it didn't happen again. Are you and the task force satisfied with the changes that have been made?
CROW: Well, I'm not satisfied with all of the changes that have been made because they have not been fully implemented yet. A lot of the changes and failures that were identified were failures of lack of resources, the structure of the Secret Service, their training pipeline. And those are things that ultimately are not just in the purview of the executive branch and the Service, but are going to require congressional action. So now we're going to continue to push for the reform that's necessary.
FADEL: So let's talk about those reforms that you say are necessary. What are you pushing for? And when you say congressional action, what would that be?
CROW: Well, there's cultural change. You know, I'm a former army ranger. I served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. And what I know is the culture of an organization starts at the top and it permeates down. And there was a culture within the Secret Service at this event and at other events where the rank-and-file agents on the ground did not feel empowered to say that something was wrong.
FADEL: Oh.
CROW: You know, there were plenty of opportunities on July 13 for people to raise the alarm bell, but people did not feel empowered to do that. Another would be command and control. You know, I also learned in the military that if you don't have communications and unified command, that everything else kind of fails from there. And that's exactly, again, what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania.
FADEL: Was the Secret Service cooperative during the five-month investigation?
CROW: The Secret Service was cooperative. We did have some challenges getting information from the Department of Justice and from the FBI. We're going to continue to try to get that information so that we can get to the motives of the shooter on July 13.
FADEL: And what information are you still trying to get from the FBI and the Department of Justice?
CROW: Well, we want to have the digital analysis of his phone, his contacts, whether there were any other people that were affiliated with him. We still don't really understand why he did this and if others were involved. You know, the Department of Justice has told us that this is the result of an ongoing criminal investigation. But ongoing criminal investigations should not prevent congressional oversight, which is the highest level of oversight in America. And there are plenty of mechanisms for us to receive information that's sensitive.
FADEL: We're speaking the same week of what appears to be the targeted killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO in Manhattan. Do you worry that we will be seeing more frequent targeting of high-profile figures, like elected officials and executives?
CROW: Yeah, I am concerned about that. I mean, we're in a heightened threat environment, is what we like to say. There's a lot of threats. Tensions are high and people are acting on that. But at the same time, a really important task of our task force was to show that we condemn, on a bipartisan basis, political violence. And hopefully, that will contribute to a lowering of the temperature and helping us move forward in a better way.
FADEL: Representative Jason Crow of Colorado is a ranking member of the congressional task force investigating an assassination attempt, and a second apparent attempt, against President-elect Trump. They wrapped up their hearings on Capitol Hill this week. Thank you for your time.
CROW: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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