Outgoing Secret Service Director Julia Pierson tendered her resignation Wednesday, the inevitable conclusion to her agency’s major security failings and just one day after her brutal grilling before the House Oversight committee.
Pierson, the first woman to head the Secret Service, said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Wednesday that her resignation best serves the White House and the first family, adding later that pressure from the media forced her to vacate her post just 18 months after being appointed by President Obama.
“I think it’s in the best interest of the Secret Service and the American public if I step down,” Pierson said. “Congress has lost confidence in my ability to run the agency. The media has made it clear that this is what they expected.”
“I can be pretty stoic about it, but not really,” she said. “It’s painful to leave as the agency is reeling from a significant security breach.”
She said that before Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced her resignation, she met with him to discuss her departure.
“We met in person and after that discussion I felt this was the noble thing to do,” she said, explaining that her leaving would “take pressure off the organization.”
“I’m disappointed that I didn’t have an opportunity to implement structural and operational changes in the agency,” she said. “I had a vision for the future. It’s 31 years of service and a firm understanding of the organization.”
Pierson’s resignation comes just one day after the Washington Examiner first reported that an unauthorized government worker with a gun shared an elevator with Obama during the president’s Sept. 16 visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Wednesday that the White House was not informed of the security lapse in Atlanta until moments before the publication of the Washington Examiner report.
