AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN ACTION: White House Intruder Got Farther Than First Reported, Official Says. “A man who jumped the White House fence this month made it far deeper into the president’s home than previously disclosed, overpowering a female Secret Service agent inside the North Portico entrance and running through the East Room before he was tackled, according to a congressional official familiar with the details of the incident.”
Wait, what?
overpowering a female Secret Service agent
Why was there a female Secret Service agent defending the White House?
The new development, first reported by The Washington Post, will create an explosive hearing on Tuesday when a bipartisan panel of lawmakers intends to grill Julia Pierson, the director of the Secret Service, about whether a lax and undisciplined culture inside the long-heralded agency has badly eroded its ability to protect the president and his family, several members of Congress said Monday.
Here are some questions for Julia Pierson that no one of importance will ask: What physical requirements are there for entry into the Secret Service? [UPDATE: Public documents indicate lower requirements for women.] Did the female Secret Service agent who was overpowered in the White House pass these requirements? Were there other candidates who performed better than she who were then passed over in hiring? [UPDATE: Presumably yes, due to low requirements for women.] Why? There should also be demands for any internal communications about hiring women into the Secret Service.
UPDATE: Pierson herself was an affirmative action hire, possibly chosen for politically-correct public relations reasons. As one 2013 article puts it, “Ms. Pierson, the chief of staff to Mark J. Sullivan, who retired as director last month, will take over at a time when the Secret Service is still recovering from a prostitution scandal last year that held it up to public ridicule, generated Congressional hearings and cost a number of agents their jobs.”
Earlier: Savage Boards Naval Destroyer Guarded by a Woman — and Kills Sailor.