On Tuesday, facing a tough bi-partisan grilling from legislators on Capitol Hill, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson made her first public statements about dramatic the White House security breaches earlier this month. Pierson apologized for the security failures, calling the fact that a fence-jumper armed with a knife was able to make it into the White House East Room “unacceptable”.
Pierson was also questioned closely about a 2011 incident in which the agency failed to recognize that the White House had been struck by several rounds of gunfire until damage was found days later by staffers. And then a new angle following a hearing, where an armed contractor with a criminal past rode in an elevator with President Obama, yet another break of Secret Service protocol.
