Acting Secret Service director testifies in assassination attempt hearing

WASHINGTON (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - The new head of the Secret Service says he is "ashamed" of the failures leading to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. testified before a Senate Committee Tuesday, saying that allowing the shooting was a "failure" of the agency.

Rowe told the committee that he has visited the scene of the shooting and he is already making changes to the Secret Service as an investigation into the agency is underway.

"I will not wait for the results of those findings to assess where we failed that day. I have taken and will continue to take immediate steps to ensure we do not repeat those failures," Rowe said.

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate was also questioned, providing new information about the shooter's social media history, but stopping short of assigning any motive to the attack.

"Something just very recently uncovered that I want to share is a social media account, which is believed to be associated with the shooter in about the 2019-2020 timeframe. There were over 700 comments posted from this account. Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect anti-Semitic and anti-immigration themes, to espouse political violence, and are described as extreme in nature."

Paul Abbate, Deputy Director, FBI

Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last week after bipartisan pressure following what many saw as a lack of transparency in the wake of the shooting.