US Secret Service head resigns – where was point of no return?

It’s hard to know when it became inevitable that Secret Service director, Julia Pierson, would resign. What’s your pick of service catastrophes that might have sealed her fate?

Armed man with criminal record in elevator with POTUS (September 16)

Was it two weeks ago when a private security guard at the Centers for Disease Control got in a lift with the President? Only when he wouldn’t stop filming the President on his mobile phone was there a background check, which indicated a criminal record. When his boss sacked him on the spot, the guard handed over his gun, which none of the Secret Service officers in the President’s detail even knew he was carrying. Did I mention he was in the lift, with the President?

Armed man jumps fence and runs inside White House (September 19)

Was it when 42-year-old Iraq veteran, Omar Gonzalez, armed with a knife, jumped a fence, somehow avoiding the multiple rings of Secret Service agents meant to protect the President, and ran deep inside the building, before he was stopped? The door wasn’t locked. A search after the fact of Gonzalez’s car found hundreds of rounds of ammunition, hatchets and a machete. In July police stopped him for bad driving. He had a map highlighting the White House, and a stash of weapons. Oh, and in August, he was seen lingering by the White House fence, with a hatchet tucked into his trousers.

Press release about armed man jumping fence (September 19)

Was it when the Secret Service failed to reveal how far Gonzalez got – ie not only the portico, but inside the actual building?

Gunshots fired at White House (November 2011)

Was it when the first family’s housekeeper found glass on the floor, thereby confirming someone had fired shots at the White House, breaking a window in 2011, despite a Secret Service “sweep” which had found nothing? A sweep, which was possibly a tad cursory, since the first conclusion reached by the service was that it was a car backfiring eight times, rather than gunshots?

House oversight committee

Was it the savage dismemberment of the director by Republican congressmen, who had never loved their President more than yesterday, when they questioned Director Pierson over all of the above? When the congressman from South Carolina, Trey Gowdy, repeatedly asked why it was that a housekeeper, who hasn’t had any training, confirmed before the Secret Service there had been a shooting attack targeting the White House?

Vote of confidence

Was it when the President’s spokesman said yesterday the Director had the President’s full support, despite the chorus of concern from Congress?

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