What will it take to get Secret Service Director Julia Pierson fired? Regardless of what I think of Obama and his failed polices, I still want the ‘first family’ protected at all costs. The Secret Service failures over the last several years have been not only embarrassing, but down right dangerous. The latest fence jumper got further into the White House than was originally reported and the door was left unlocked. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson is supposed to be on top of all this, yet she continues to fall down on the job. Basically, Pierson is the Eric Shinseki and Kathleen Sebelius of the Secret Service. Pierson was grilled at a House oversight hearing today.
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In his opening statement, Issa noted that the knife-carrying intruder in fact made it to the East Room. Issa said that was contrary to an “early, false report” that claimed the intruder only got just inside the residence door.
“An intruder walked in the front door of the White House, and that is unacceptable. Commonsense tells us that there were a series of security failures — not an instance of praiseworthy restraint,” Issa said. He claimed the intruder breached at least five rings of security. Urging the Secret Service to fix its problems, he warned that the next breach could be a “planned attack by a terrorist organization.”
“The fact is, the system broke down,” Issa said.
Under questioning by Issa, Pierson acknowledged that the intruder “knocked back” an officer who was standing at the White House doorway, made it into the hallway and “stepped momentarily into the East Room.”
She said the intruder was handcuffed just outside a nearby room called the Green Room. (The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the individual who finally tackled the intruder was an off-duty agent who happened to be in the house and was leaving for the night.)