WASHINGTON — The head of the Secret Service on Tuesday endured a verbal firing squad from lawmakers, who questioned whether the agency can be trusted to protect the first family after major security breaches at the White House.
“An intruder walked in the front door of the White House!” said an incensed Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) at the first congressional hearing on the Sept. 19 break-in by a knife-wielding veteran. “That is unacceptable.”
“To the American public, that would be half of a White House tour!” said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) on how far the intruder got into the mansion before finally being tackled. “…This is disgraceful.”
Julia Pierson, the director hired by President Obama in 2013 to reform a male-dominated agency tainted by a prostitution scandal, said it’s “obvious that mistakes were made” and pledged she’d prevent a future attack — starting by locking the front door.
“It’s clear that our security plan was not properly executed,” Pierson told the House Oversight Committee. “This is unacceptable and I take full responsibility and I’ll make sure it does not happen again.”
Pierson acknowledged the front door to the White House was indeed unlocked when 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez scaled the White House fence, sprinted across the lawn, entered the front door and made it into the East Room — much farther inside the mansion than the Secret Service previously reported.
“The door was unlocked at the time of Mr. Gonzalez’s entry,” Pierson said, noting that automatic locks have since been installed that “are effective today.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) questioned why the Secret Service doesn’t have the practice of shooting jumpers.
“We want to see overwhelming force,” Chaffetz said, noting the risk of terrorists. “…We don’t know what’s going on underneath that person’s clothing. If they want to penetrate that [perimeter], they need to know that they are perhaps going to be killed. That’s the message we should be sending every single time.”
The Washington Post reported Sunday the White House was shot up by a crazed gunman on Nov. 11, 2011, but it took the Secret Service days to realize the mansion had been hit, only doing so when a housekeeper found the damage — later estimated at nearly $100,000.
Meanwhile, the paper reported another security breach: An armed man with three prior convictions for assault and battery was allowed to be on an elevator with President Obama at the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta earlier this month.
The man, who was unknown to the Secret Service, turned out to be a harmless security contractor, but he acted unprofessionally by snapping photos of the president.
“The Secret Service is supposed to be the most elite protective force in the world, yet (it took) four days before they discovered the White House had been shot seven times,” marveled Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), reflecting the bipartisan disgust expressed at the packed committee hearing.
Pierson explained why a housekeeper discovered evidence of the gunshots before agents: “The housekeeper was able to locate fragments of glass on the Truman balcony, which is not an area that’s frequented by security personnel.”
Pierson acknowledged also she’s “troubled” by the reports that an on-duty Secret Service officer believed the mansion was under attack, but was afraid to question a supervisor who disputed the account.
“I intend to lead the Secret Service through these challenges and restore our agency’s reputation to the level of excellence that the American public expects,” Pierson said.
Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) called for a “21st-century makeover” for the Secret Service, noting Obama receives three times as many threats as his predecessors.
“We must learn whether today’s Secret Service as structured, for example, could stop five or six fence jumpers, jumping at the same time, intent on harm to the White House and the president, not just a demented war vet who even alone might have succeeded,” said Norton.
Norton said Congress should “take some responsibility,” since it cut agency funding under sequestration. Pierson said the agency spends 75 percent of its budget on personnel and the Secret Service is now “close to 550 employees below our optimal level.”
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Issa both questioned Pierson’s figures and asked for exact personnel counts, which Pierson did not readily have.
Plenty of lawmakers complained that Pierson didn’t express the outrage appropriate for the extraordinary security breach.
“I wish to God you protected the White House the way you are protecting your reputation here today,” Lynch said.
Pierson replied in the same steady tone she held throughout the high-profile hearing: “Let me be clear, the United States Secret Service does not take any of these incidents lightly.”