Obama could have been killed! Pierson steps down over lax security

The first female director of the Secret Service has resigned from her position after two separate incidents where intruders were able to slip through lapses in security.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Julia Pierson resigned on October 1 following the incident on September 19 where a person was able to jump the fence around the White House and gain access to it.

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The Homeland Security director, Jeh Johnson, announced the resignation in a statement, and also announced that the Department of Homeland Security would take over and conduct an internal inquiry of the Secret Service. The statement also revealed that Joseph Clancy, a former special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division of the Secret Service would be named the interim director of the Secret Service.

Members of Congress began calling for Pierson's resignation after testimony during a hearing on September 30. There it was revealed that an armed individual was able to get into an elevator with the President during a recent trip to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Several high-ranking Congressmen, including Democrats and Republicans had called for Pierson to resign, including Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat in the House Oversight Committee.

"I want her to go if she cannot restore trust in the agency and if she cannot get the culture back in order," he said on CNN.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also believed Pierson needed to go.

"It's clear to me that the only way to solve the problem the Secret Service has is with new leadership," he said. "What Julia Pierson describes as mistakes are major security failures on multiple fronts."

Graham continued that the light presence around President Obama is "the worst possible signal to send to terrorists and our enemies around the world."

Pierson became the director of the U.S. Secret Service back in March of 2013, after the Secret Service's reputation was blackened by the Colombian prostitute scandal.

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