A House task force probing the attempted assassination in July of Donald Trump held a final hearing Thursday that contained some fireworks, promises to improve, and unanswered questions.  Ronald L. Rowe Jr., acting director of the Secret Service Acting, was the only witness to appear before the task force, which includes eight Republicans and six Democrats. Rowe replaced Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned after the first assassination attempt against Trump on July 13 at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.  The panel, formally called the House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump, focused primarily on the attempt on Trump’s life in Pennsylvania. A second assassination attempt occurred Sept. 15 at the former president’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. After the hearing, the panel voted unanimously to make its final report available to the full House. It wasn’t expected to be made public immediately, however. Here are key highlights from the task force’s final hearing.  1. ‘Accountability Is Occurring’ Rowe opened by saying that the July 13 shooting was an “abject failure [that] underscored critical gaps in Secret Service operations.” “President-elect Trump was wounded,” Rowe said, a month after the Nov. 5 election victory that will send Trump back to the White House. “A cowardly and despicable act killed one person and critically injured two others.”  The 21-year-old shooter killed one man in the crowd at the Trump rally and seriously wounded two other men.  “The recently completed mission assurance inquiry thoroughly investigated the specific actions and inactions that led to the assassination attempt,” Rowe said. “Four areas of deficiencies were identified: communications, protective advance processes, command and control processes, and coordination with external entities.” The “mission assurance inquiry” is bureaucratese for the Secret Service’s internal investigation of what happened.  “Let me be clear, there will be accountability and that accountability is occurring. It is an extensive review that requires due process and the pace of this process, quite frankly, it does frustrate me,” Rowe added. “But it is essential that we recognize the gravity of our failure. I personally carry the weight of knowing that we almost lost a protectee and that our failure cost a father and husband his life.”  Task force Chairman Mike Kelly, R-Pa., later asked Rowe: “Of all the areas the Secret Service reviewed after July 13, what do you think is most concerning about that day?” Rowe said it was the failure to recognize the proximity of the AGR building, atop which the shooter took his shots, and the failure of communication among Secret Service agents and local law enforcement. (AGR stands for American Glass Research.) “That to me is glaring, those are basic tenets, fundamentals of what advance teams are supposed to identify,” Rowe said. “They are supposed to identify hazards [and] risks and then mitigate those risks effectively—either by using law enforcement and coordinating assets, or taking matters and making sure that risk is taken out of play. We did not do that on the 13th. Post-July 13, there was a renewed focus on that.”  2. ‘You’re Out of Line’ … ‘Don’t You Bully Me’ The task force’s hearing was mostly calm until Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, asked Rowe about the observance at the 9/11 memorial in New York City this year, where Rowe stood just behind President Joe Biden.   Rowe reportedly switched places to stand closer to Biden at the 9/11 event. That would go against normal operating procedures, which are to have the Secret Service’s special agent in charge of the president’s regular protective detail stand next to him at major events, since that agent is most familiar with the protectee.  Heated exchange between @RepPatFallon and U.S. Secret Service Acting Director Rowe.Rowe: "Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes!"Fallon: "I'm not. I'm invoking -"Rowe: "You are, sir. You are way out of line!" pic.twitter.com/LR28SDci5I— CSPAN (@cspan) December 5, 2024 Fallon asked Rowe whether he was the special agent in charge when standing close to Biden. Rowe didn’t directly answer the question.  “That is the day where we remember the more than 3,000 people that have died on 9/11,” Rowe shouted at Fallon. “I actually responded to Ground Zero. I was there going through the ashes of the World Trade Center. I was there, Congressman.” Fallon followed up, saying: “I’m not asking that. I’m asking if you were the special agent in charge.”  Rowe repeated: “I was there, Congressman, to show respect for a Secret Service member that died on 9/11. Do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes.” Fallon said, “I’m not.” Rowe shouted, “You are out of line!”  Fallon shouted back, saying: “Don’t you bully me. I’m an elected member of Congress, and I’m asking you a serious question.” Rowe again shouted, saying, “I’m a public servant who has served this nation and spent time on our darkest day.” Fallon said, “You won’t answer the question.” Kelly jumped in with the gavel and said, “This committee will come to order.” Fallon said: “I’m asking a serious question for the American people. They are very simple. They are not trick questions. Were you the special agent in charge that day?” Finally, Rowe replied: “No, I wasn’t. I was there representing the United States Secret Service. It did not affect protective operations.” 3. ‘Why Aren’t People Saying Something?’ Rep. Jason Crowe, D-Colo., the task force’s ranking member,  noted that a tree blocked countersnipers’ vision of substantial parts of the rooftop of the AGR building, from where the shooter fired.  When he was in the Army, Crowe said, there was a culture of “See something, say something” in case of a suspected life and safety issue. Commercial airline pilots have a similar responsibility, he said.  “I’m struck by the lack of that culture on July 13,” Crowe said of the Butler rally, where a bullet grazed Trump’s right ear shortly after he began to speak. “If you’re a countersniper and you’ve been placed in a position that doesn’t allow you to see entire sectors of the position that you are responsible for, why aren’t people saying something? And it happened on numerous occasions.” Rowe said that “it starts with training, a retraining, a reeducation of folks.” “I’ve directed the Office of Protective Operations to initiate and stand up an auditing capability to regularly send out folks to evaluate how we are doing and also share findings with our office of training,” Rowe said.  The Secret Service head added: “We have to do after-action reports and we have to retrain our people to see something and say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, why don’t we have that hallway covered?” 4. ‘Apathy or Complacency’ House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., also a task force member, appeared indignant as he recalled his own time in the military.  Green asserted: “Going to war, I didn’t give a s**t if I died. What I didn’t want to do was fail. Your guys showed up that day [in Butler] and didn’t give a s**t.” What happened July 13 demonstrates apathy in the agency, Green argued.  “It speaks of an apathy or complacency that is really unacceptable in the Secret Service,” Green said, adding: “It speaks of a culture of lack of attention to detail, lack of sense of urgency, complacency. These are leadership issues. These are command climate issues. What is the command climate of the Secret Service?” Rowe insisted that the agency is addressing leadership issues, including by providing training for the equivalent of a military captain before an agent may rise to a position of higher leadership. “We are reorganizing and reimagining this organization,” Rowe told Green. “That includes making sure we are developing a leadership development program so that we are touching people at the GS-13 level, which is right before—the equivalent of a captain—touching them before they get promoted to [GS-14]. … We need to hit people and identify leaders early on.”   5. ‘Information That This Committee Does Not Have’ Task force members and staff visited the site of the first assassination attempt against Trump in Butler. Staff interviewed over 45 law enforcement officials, examined thousands of documents and transcripts, met with FBI and Secret Service officials, and subpoenaed other federal agents who were on the ground July 13in Butler, said Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla. “It is important to note information that this committee does not have from the Department of Justice, including components of the Department of Justice: the FBI, the ATF,” Lee said, referring to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  The unexamined evidence includes digital analysis of electronic devices belonging to the rooftop shooter in Pennsylvania, who was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper, and the gunman at Trump’s golf course in Florida, who was stopped in his vehicle and arrested. The task force also didn’t have any financial information about the would-be assassins, Lee said.  Lee said the task force has a thorough analysis of what security procedures could have been improved from the Secret Service, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. But, he said, almost no information came from the Justice Department.  “In a very real sense, we do not have some of the critical intelligence information that might have helped us even better understand the needs of your agency going forward,” she told Rowe.  “Our mission on this task force is to understand what went wrong on the day of the attempted assassination, ensure accountability, and prevent such a failure from ever happening again,” Lee said. “I would assert that preventing such a failure from ever happening again necessitates that this Congress has access to all of the relevant information related to this day, related to the actual threat landscape that affects not only President Trump but other protectees under your care.”  6. Robot Dogs aka ‘Autonomous Canines’ On what would seemingly be a lighter note, Rowe spoke with a serious tone and straight face about the robot dogs—or “autonomous canines”—at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.  “Right now at Mar-a-Lago, we’ve started using a sensory array, an autonomous robot, that’s out there walking the seawall right now,” Rowe said. “It has a sensor package. We will use it at sites. We started using it.” The acting Secret Service chief said the Defense Department has used similar technologies.  “Those are the types of technologies that have been out there, that have been in DOD world for years,” Rowe added. “We need to start leveraging those resources. So, the usage of autonomous canines down there right now is just one example of that.”  7. ‘That Cost Seconds’ Secret Service agents didn’t retrieve radios to communicate with local law enforcement that were set aside for them by the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, noted Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La. “You had isolated assets on rooftops that had no direct radio communication other than the relay through their command post and their cellphones,” Higgins said. “It would have been very easy for them to have a local radio up on the roof. That didn’t happen. That costs seconds, and impacts the results of the entire day.” Rowe replied that the Secret Service is working to improve that.  “We’ve implemented a PACE—primary alternate contingency and emergency,” he said. “And also making sure, for example, the snipers—our countersnipers—and local snipers are co-located. That’s to cut down on that, to make sure they are standing next to each other so that there is communication between them. Also, we are exchanging radios and making sure we have their radios and can hear what they say.” Higgins responded, “So sharing radios was part of your pre-mission plan for Butler on J13. So the failure to execute the pre-mission plan has impacted us here.”  The post 7 Takeaways From Final Hearing of Task Force Investigating Trump Assassination Attempt appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Even by Joe Scarborough's history of long rants, this one was L-O-N-G—and very defensive. For over 20 minutes on today's Morning Joe, Scarborough raged on in defending his and Mika's approach on two matters. First, on yesterday's show, David Frum commented on the report that some of Pete Hegseth's Fox News colleagues had expressed their concern to an NBC News reporter about Hegseth's drinking. Said Frum: “If you’re too drunk for Fox News, you’re very, very drunk indeed.” In response, after the segment with Frum ended, Mika said: "The comment was a little too flippant for the moment we're in." Scarborough said that Mika's comment "turned into a column," with the headline, "The Sound of Fear." Oddly, Scarborough didn't note that the column had been written by none other than... David Frum.  In the column, Frum suggested that Joe and Mika have been intimidated, and that Mika's comment was an attempt to "appease.' In response, Scarborough went to great lengths in an attempt to prove that he is not a fearful guy. "Let me tell you something. I wasn't fearful in Congress when Newt Gingrich and leadership said they were going to destroy me, run people against. I said, go ahead, make my day. Wasn't fearful on this show. Nobody has once told me what to say here. Well actually, one person did one time. One leader did one time. I said, I'll you what: if you think you can do such a damn good job, why don't you come here and do the show four hours a day? I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine quitting. But I'm going to do my show. I'll do going to do my show the way I want to do my show.  Muy Macho Joe even went full Clint Eastwood, bragging that he told Republican leaders who threatened him, "Go ahead. Make my day." Scarborough also addressed the criticism that he and Mika have received from others in the media for having recently gone to Mar-a-Lago for a background conversation with President-elect Trump. Scarborough's point, which has some merit, is that the very media outlets that are criticizing him are, behind the scenes, also seeking to get interviews with Trump or with people close to him. Scarborough quoted a reporter who said he'd be fired if he turned down an opportunity to interview the President-elect. Scarborough being Scarborough, he also managed to work in boasts about his reporting prowess, mentioning that he had interviewed Middle East leaders, and endured the anger they expressed directly at him, and had sat for an hour in the Elysee Palace with French President Macron.  Scarborough closed with a variation on Sean Hannity's famous encouragement to his viewers, which in turn is from the Bible, "Let your heart not be troubled." Scarborough encouraged his liberal fans, that despite the prospect of another Trump term: "I say this now to people who watch the show and love the show. People who are fearful and concerned. Let me tell you something: we should have no fear. [Do] not show fear. [Do] not be fearful!" Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 12/5/24 6:02 am ET MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Shall we dive in? JOE SCARBOROUGH: What you think? We heard about something that happened yesterday. MIKA: You can. Absolutely. SCARBOROUGH: Is it all right? Point of personal privilege?  MIKA: Point of personal privilege. SCARBOROUGH: So yesterday, we had a good friend of ours on the show. And a who's been a guest for some time. A guy who, he knows, has been one of my heroes for years now. A great writer, David Frum. He writes for The Atlantic. David came on the show yesterday, and we're having a good conversation. But we were talking about the Fox News employees that actually talked to Courtney Kube and other people at NBC News, and said that he [Pete Hegseth] had been drinking too much there. And I was devastated. It was a devastating report. And David flippantly said, he was joking, he said, "If you're too drunk for Fox News, you're very, very drunk indeed."  We went on with the segment. And just to let you know how things work here, I was asking Mika, should we address that or not? Because if somebody had said that about any news outlet, we'd usually say something about it. To reference the entire network. So at the end, and I want to get the words right, Mika said this: "The comment was a little too flippant for the moment we're in. We disagree with Fox News, but there's some good people over there." MIKA: A lot are worried about Pete Hegseth. SCARBOROUGH: We also, of course, talking about those people so worried at Fox News about America's national security, that they were talking to an NBC News reporter -- MIKA: Coming forward. SCARBOROUGH: Coming forward, saying Hegseth was not qualified. . . .  This got turned into a column, and a headline, that said, let's see, what was the headline? The Sound of Fear. Now, that wasn't the sound of fear, that was the sound of civility.  And, in saying that Mika had apologized, she didn't apologize. MIKA: No, I didn't. SCARBOROUGH: She simply said it was too flippant. Now, I would recommend, if we're in a stage where, a comment like this causes a meltdown. And I saw George Conway, another guy that we have on the show -- MIKA: Who we love. SCARBOROUGH: -- We love George. Saying, [adopts melodramatic voice] "Read this article, it's going to make you very sad, but you must read it all. Oh! Because of the fearful times we're in." Well, there's some problem with the times that we're in. MIKA: You can't be fearful. SCARBOROUGH: You can't be fearful. Just because some people have said that we're fearful. Let me tell you something. You can talk to anybody that's worked in the front office of NBC and MSNBC over the past 22 years. I tell you, I'm not fearful. You talk to anybody who served with me in Congress. They will tell you: not fearful of leadership. . . .  And I am telling you, "the sound of fear," the apology, none of that is true. But guess what? This is what's been going on now for several weeks. You know, we went down to talk to the President-elect. And people wrote articles that were just false. But you know what we did? We did the corporate thing. Corporate said, don't say anything. Just keep your head down. What did the royals say? Never explain, never complain. Whatever.  . . .  SCARBOROUGH: I think, actually, if they have a chance to talk on the background -- MIKA: I think, actually, they might be doing that. SCARBOROUGH: -- with the incoming President and President-elect, they would do it. In fact, as somebody wrote during this outrageously stupid, immature series of articles that lied time and time again about us, reporters said, I'd be fired if I had the opportunity to go in and talk to somebody who's the incoming President of the United States, and they didn't do it! Ask any journalist at the New York Times, the New York Post. And that's the funny thing, people at the Washington Post especially. Hair on fire media report. How dare they? How dare they? At the same time that the Washington Post is doing the same thing. Trying to speak to the president on background. Trying to speak to people around the president on background. That's what reporters do. And by the way, guess what? That's what I've been doing for years. When I go speak to Middle East leaders on background, some who are not good people. Guess what? I do it to get information and background and give it to you. I bet you didn't know! Cause I didn't tell you. Because it was a background conversation.  When I went to the Elysee Palace last summer, and I spoke to Macron for about an hour in his office about Ukraine, about the EU, about the ability of NATO. About his problems with United States. I did that, but I didn't reportit. The only difference between what we did on that visit and what the New York Times and Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, everybody else is doing is. We were transparent. We actually told you. . . .  You know why I went to leaders in the Middle East who were angry at the United States, and I sat there and I listened to them attacking me personally for 45 minutes because of U.S. policy? You know why I do that? To get the read of the leader. To get the read of where the country's going. [Shouts] So I can come back here and talk to you and let you know what the hell is going on! . . .  But let me tell you something. I wasn't fearful in Congress when Newt Gingrich and leadership said they were going to destroy me, run people against. I said, go ahead, make my day.  Wasn't fearful on this show. Nobody [inaudible.] By the way, I always have Republicans say, oh, they're telling you exactly what to say. No! Nobody has once told me what to say here. Well actually, one person did one time. One leader did one time. I said, I'll you what: if you think you can do such a damn good job, why don't you come here and do the show four hours a day? I'm fine. MIKA: Oh, that's hilarious. SCARBOROUGH: I'm fine. I'm fine quitting. But I'm going to do my show. I'll do going to do my show the way I want to do my show.  And I say this now to people who watch the show and love the show. People who are fearful and concerned. Let me tell you something: we should have no fear.  . . .  We should hold the line. Accept what we accept, with Marco Rubio and other appointments like that. But hold the line in these other areas. But not show fear. Not be fearful!

MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider and the creators of a newly released documentary on free speech got to the heart of the decision that dealt a major blow to Big Tech censorship. For the Dec. 4 edition of MRC UnCensored, Schneider spoke to the creators of the documentary The Bird and the Bee—filmmaker Matt Pirrall and Thomas Pack, Palladium Pictures’s program director and associate producer. The documentary covered satire website The Babylon Bee’s commendable refusal to bend to Twitter censorship—explaining how this choice led tech mogul Elon Musk to purchase and overhaul the social media platform now known as X. [Story Continues on MRC Free Speech America]

The Boston City Council said in an unanimous vote that the city would defend illegal immigrants and reaffirm Boston's "sanctuary city" policies. All 13 members of the council voted to defy President-elect Donald Trump's plans for mass deportation of illegal aliens to alleviate the immigration crisis. The resolution said the policies would ensure the city's dedication to diversity. 'We’ll continue to stand with our immigrant neighbors and build a more inclusive Boston in the face of mass deportation threats.' Former city councilor Josh Zakim, who wrote a sanctuary city law, said it was his proudest moment as a local lawmaker. “I think in a time of polarization and hate and nastiness going back and forth, it’s important to remember what this law does here in the city of Boston,” he said. “It simply removes our resources, our police officers, our funds from being used to enforce civil, not criminal, violations of federal immigration rules.”Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have criticized such laws as getting in the way of the deportation of violent criminals who often commit more heinous crimes that could have been prevented by local cooperation. “It’s not the job of the Boston Police Department or any City of Boston agency to spend our municipal resources and energy on doing something which has been proven time and time again to make us unsafe,” Zakim claimed. City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune made it clear the council would continue to oppose deportations. "Together we’ll continue to stand with our immigrant neighbors and build a more inclusive Boston in the face of mass deportation threats,” said Louijeune. Trump has made mass deportation a prominent policy in his presidential campaign in spite critiques from the left claiming that such action would be racist and in violation of humanitarian laws. Trump has argued that mass deportations are necessary after millions entered the country illegally under the lax policies of the Biden administration. Boston's sanctuary city policies may run afoul of a recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that sided against King County in Washington state for trying to oppose deportation efforts by the federal government. Boston is also home to a large community of Irish illegal aliens. In 2017, the Irish community in Boston was shocked when a prominent business man was nabbed by ICE for breaking immigration laws. There are estimated to be more than 50,000 illegal aliens from Ireland in the U.S. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

There's something about water that's just so terrifying. It's the feeling of knowing that, in an instant, a still, glittering river can wash you away if the current picks up, or that the ocean is a bottomless pit that's crawling with eerie, almost alien life. While The Chinese Room's Still Wakes the Deep toyed with those nautical phobias, Deepest Fear takes it to a whole new level. Set in an underwater facility on Neptune, you'll have to uncover your estranged father's secrets while sending monsters down to their watery grave with swift headshots and your (hopefully) undying wit. Continue reading Deepest Fear is a new survival horror FPS that channels Dead Space MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best horror games, Best FPS games, Best space games

With no word yet on a possible XCOM 3, tactical RPG lovers everywhere are on the hunt for that next strategy fix. Among the contenders, Menace is one I’m very eagerly anticipating. It comes from Overhype Studios, which previously brought us the brutal medieval fantasy tactics game Battle Brothers, and promises to bring some smart new ideas to the format. Unfortunately, we’ll be waiting a little longer than initially planned, as the studio confirms it is no longer targeting a 2024 launch. Nevertheless, with almost 300,000 Steam wishlists so far and a brand-new trailer to check out, it’s certainly still one to watch in 2025. Continue reading Terminator-inspired, XCOM style tactical RPG Menace is delayed into 2025 MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best space games, Best turn-based RPG games, Best horror games

Beer Banshees: ‘Journos’ Shriek Over Pete Hegseth Drinking Alcohol on St. Patrick’s Day

New Scandal: Pete Hegseth Visited the 9/11 Memorial in His Underwear

The details about Pokemon Go’s 2024 Holiday Part 1 event have been revealed and it will introduce a new version of Dedenne wearing a Christmas outfit.

The Thing: Remastered is available TODAY for Xbox One, Series X|S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Steam, GOG, Humble)!