The recent disclosures about breeches in presidential security by the Secret Service are more than just embarrassing. They are outrageous and totally unacceptable.
Despite more than three hours of a well-deserved tough grilling by House lawmakers last Tuesday, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson did little to inspire confidence about presidential security.
Pierson gave testimony to lawmakers after the Sept. 19 incident in which a man armed with a knife, climbed over the White House fence and made it into the executive mansion. She disclosed shortly before the alleged intruder, Omar Gonzalez, climbed 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 Gonzales was stopped on Aug. 25 while carrying a small hatchet near the fence south of the White House.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Pierson neglected to mention another security breach at the White House.
Just hours after Pierson left the House hearing, The Washington Examiner and The Washington Post reported the details of another breach on Sept. 16, in which an armed security contractor with three convictions for assault and battery rode on an elevator with President Barack Obama and his security detail at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, violating Secret Service protocol.
A Secret Service spokesman confirmed the elevator incident, but declined to elaborate, citing an ongoing investigation.
Pierson’s lack of disclosure and transparency about the elevator incident is appalling and unacceptable. She did the right thing by resigning as Secret Service director.
But her resignation is not enough. Others below Pierson violated the public’s trust by not doing their job to the highest standards of what should be expected from the agency.
The sloppiness displayed by the Secret Service is of even more concern when considering the fact President Obama has reportedly received an unprecedented number of threats.
Lawmakers are right to call for additional independent reviews into the agency’s poor response. These serious breaches of presidential security cannot be tolerated.
https://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/article_d271ed92-1f1f-59b3-9b94-a9beaced83b4.html
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