WASHINGTON — Members of Congress declared Tuesday that they had lost confidence in the Secret Service to protect President Obama and his family and raised serious doubts that Julia Pierson, the director of the agency, was the right person to confront what they called systemic problems and a striking lack of candor about recent security breaches.
After three hours of combative questioning by members of a House panel, lawmakers from both parties called for an independent investigation of a bureaucracy they said could no longer police itself and was endangering the very people it is sworn to protect.
Pierson defended her agency, but she repeatedly acknowledged that “mistakes were made” by agents and officers as they ignored standard protocols for responding to threats. Notably, Pierson did not explain why Secret Service officials initially misled the public about how far inside the White House an armed intruder, Omar J. Gonzalez, managed to get on Sept. 19.
Officials originally said Gonzalez was unarmed and had been captured just inside the door of the North Portico, but later acknowledged that the intruder carried a small knife and had made it through the Entrance Hall, the Cross Hall, and into the East Room before being tackled just outside the Green Room.
Representative Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, accused the Secret Service of “misleading by omission” and said the agency had not been forthcoming about other recent incidents.
“I seriously question their candor to Congress and the American people about what is really going on,” Chaffetz said after the hearing. “We are having to pull it out of them.”
Representative Stephen F. Lynch of Massachusetts lashed into Pierson during the hearing, saying he had “very low confidence” in her leadership and her agency’s ability to secure the executive mansion. He suggested she was more interested in obscuring what really happened on Sept. 19 than in security against intruders or terrorists.
“I wish to God you protected the White House like you’re protecting your reputation here today,” said Lynch, Democrat of South Boston. “I don’t think the Secret Service is taking their duty to protect the American president and his family at the White House — I don’t think you’re taking it seriously.”
At a briefing Tuesday, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said the president continued to have confidence in Pierson and the agency, but he returned several times to the idea that there is a “legitimate public interest” in disclosing what happened. Earnest said the Secret Service should release accurate information as soon as possible.
Representative Darrell Issa of California, the Republican chairman of the panel, said he and the ranking Democrat would soon send a letter to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security demanding the appointment of an outsider to lead an inquiry into the agency.
Although Pierson promised a comprehensive internal review of the incidents, her pledge appeared to do little to satisfy members of the committee.
Under questioning by members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Pierson said that an outer glass door at the North Portico remained unlocked after the intruder breached the fence and that an inner, wooden door was in the process of being hand-locked when the intruder came through the doors.
She said the Secret Service had since installed an automatic lock on the door, which drew a tongue-in-cheek response from Issa.
“We learn from our mistakes,” he said.
Pierson, who said she took “full responsibility” for the security failure, also offered new details about the route that Gonzalez took inside the White House. She said he “knocked back” an agent inside the building, and then fought with the agent as he continued through the Entrance Hall, turned left into the Cross Hall, got a few steps inside the East Room, and was finally tackled by two Secret Service officers back in the Cross Hall, just outside the Green Room.
Officials said the two were assisted by at least one off-duty agent who had just entered the building after seeing Obama off in Marine One, the presidential helicopter.
Shortly after the hearing, the US attorney’s office in Washington said Gonzalez had been indicted by a grand jury on charges of unlawfully entering a restricted government building while carrying a weapon. The grand jury also indicted Gonzalez on charges of carrying a dangerous weapon in public and unlawfully possessing ammunition.
The ammunition, along with two hatchets and a machete, was found in his car after the incident. Gonzalez will make his first court appearance to face the charges Wednesday.
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