Yesterday, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson accepted the blame for the recent string of security breaches at the White House. However, another one of the agency's fuck-ups has been revealed, and it involves an armed man on an elevator with President Obama.
The Washington Post reports that when the president ventured to Atlanta to visit the Centers for Disease Control on Sep. 16. That's when the man, a security contractor with three convictions for assault and battery, somehow made it through a screening and onto an elevator with President Obama—with a gun:
The incident, which took place when Obama visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to discuss the U.S. response to the Ebola crisis, rattled Secret Service agents assigned to the president’s protective detail.
The private contractor first aroused the agents’ concerns when he acted oddly and did not comply with their orders to stop using a cellphone camera to record the president in the elevator, according to the people familiar with the incident.
When the elevator opened, Obama left with most of his Secret Service detail. Some agents stayed behind to question the man and then used a national database check that turned up his criminal history.
Worse, sources told the Post that President Obama wasn't informed about the incident. A Secret Service official who wisely asked to remain anonymous said an investigation into the incident continues, but this simply means the agency really has to go the extra mile to restore faith in its ability.
[via Washington Post]
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