Despite the extraordinary lapses in the Sept. 19 incident, Julia Pierson asserted: “The president is safe today.”
Hours later, reports emerged of yet another failure in Secret Service protocol: allowing an armed man with criminal convictions on an elevator with President Barack Obama as he visited Atlanta on Sept. 16.
The federal security contractor rode the elevator with Obama and his security detail while the president was visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a briefing on Ebola, the Washington Examiner reported. The Washington Post reported similar details and added that the man, who was not named, had three convictions for assault and battery. The office of Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R- Utah, who has helped lead Congress’ investigation, said a whistleblower had provided him the same details.
The contractor’s gun was discovered only because he was questioned after he persisted in taking video of Obama on the elevator, the reports said. He was immediately fired by his employers.
A Secret Service official confirmed the incident but declined to comment further.
It was unclear if Obama was informed. But Pierson, under questioning at the hearing, said she is the one who briefs Obama on threats to his personal security and that she had briefed him only once this year, “for the Sept. 19 incident.”
Ina hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike expressed the view that the Sept. 19 breach of White House security had blemished the storied agency, and several pressed for an independent inquiry into what went wrong. They were not assuaged by Pierson’s vow that she would “make sure that it does not happen again” or by the agency’s own investigation.
“I wish to God you protected the White House like you protected your reputation here today,” Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Pa., told Pierson. Chaffetz said later: “The more I learn, the more it scares me.”
Pierson disclosed that shortly before the intruder jumped the fence at least two of her uniformed officers recognized him from an earlier troubling encounter but did not approach him or report his presence to superiors.
Pierson said she did not know why Gonzalez was not intercepted earlier.
“Personnel actions will be taken” once the agency’s review is complete, she said, in what appeared to be a euphemism for possible discipline or firings. Lawmakers stopped short of calling on her to resign.
Even when their protectors fall short, presidents rarely publicly criticize those who risk their lives to keep the first family safe, but rather express appreciation for their service. That means Congress provides the only real public oversight of the Secret Service.
And Pierson’s assurances left lawmakers cold. They were aghast, too, about a four-day delay in 2011 before the Secret Service realized a man had fired a high-powered rifle at the White House.
The Washington Post reported on the weekend that some Secret Service officers believed immediately that shots had been fired into the mansion but they were “largely ignored” or afraid to challenge their bosses’ conclusions that the shooting was not directed at the White House.
Such breaches, combined with recurring reports of misbehavior within the agency, cause “many people to ask whether there is a much broader problem with the Secret Service,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, top Democrat on the committee.
“The fact is the system broke down,” said committee chairman Darrell Issa. “An intruder walked in the front door of the White House, and that is unacceptable.”
The Secret Service has suffered other blows to its reputation in the past few years. Pierson’s predecessor, Mark J. Sullivan, apologized to lawmakers in 2012 after details emerged of a night of debauchery involving 13 Secret Service agents and officers in advance of the president’s arrival at a summit in Colombia. Sullivan retired about 10 months later.
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