Lights from the Oval Office are seen from the snow covered South Grounds of the White House
Correction added Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Few things are as frustrating as being taken for a ride by the mainstream press. The Washington Post reporter, Carol Leonnig, who broke this story, is the recipient of a Polk award for her 2014 work on the White House fence jumper and the 2011 shooting of the White House window. However, in this case, the report that appeared in the Washington Post on March 12th depicted a scene of much greater chaos than what actually occurred. A source who has seen the security videotape discussed it with Michael Calderone of the Huffington Post.
The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the video, told The Huffington Post that the footage shows two senior agents driving very slowly after arriving at the scene, perhaps just 1 to 2 mph. The source said the agents' car nudged a traffic barrel and that the action appeared to be intentional rather than reckless -- in an effort to move the object out of the way.
According to Calderone, Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy addressed members of Congress on the incident earlier today.
Clancy told members of Congress Tuesday that the footage showed the two agents nudging an orange construction barrel in order to pass, noting that the barrel in question didn't even fall over. He said the car proceeded to a checkpoint, and the agents appeared to show their badges in order to pass. Clancy also said that the agents' car was traveling at "a very slow rate of speed" into the White House complex. He added that the agents had returned to the White House at the time because one of them had left his car at the complex before attending the going-away party.
Why not just post a big billboard in front of the White House that says: "Go ahead, shoot him. We don't give a fuck."
According to the Washington Post, two officers, including the number two man on the President's protective detail drove into a security barrier at the White House after "drinking at a late-night party last week."
Officers on duty who witnessed the March 4 incident wanted to arrest the agents and conduct sobriety tests, according to a current and a former government official familiar with the incident. But the officers were ordered by a supervisor on duty that night to let the agents go home, said these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal matter.
Both agents, Mark Connolly, the second-in-command of the President's security detail, and George Ogilvie, a senior supervisor in the Washington field office have been assigned non-operational, non-supervisory jobs while the investigation continues.
As if it couldn't get any worse, there is more below the fold.
It now looks like the agents drove through an active crime scene according to the latest reporting from the Washington Post.
A half hour before the two agents arrived at the White House entrance, a woman pulled up to the gates, approached an agent, and left a package, calling it an (expletive deleted) bomb. When the secret service agent tried to stop her by holding open her car door, she reversed gears, hitting the agent, and managed to drive away after a brief struggle.
The area was cordoned off and the bomb squad called. The two agents then arrived "returning from a work party at a Chinatown bar about eight blocks from the White House," and drove through the crime scene, either close to, or over, the suspicious package. Fortunately for them, the package only contained a book.
Apparently the woman has had past encounters with the secret service and a warrant was issued charging her with assault with a dangerous weapon, the car.