Rep. Cummings on Secret Service Director: ‘This Lady Has to Go’
Published at
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — After sleeping on Secret Service Director Julia Pierson’s testimony, Rep. Elijah Cummings, the most senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is calling for Pierson’s resignation.
“The president is not well served. …I think this lady has to go — Ms. Pierson,” Cummings, D-Md., said during a radio interview with Roland Martin on NewsOneNow Wednesday morning. ”There has to be drastic changes.”
It appears that the latest news about an incident in Atlanta, where the president ended up on an elevator with a contractor who was a convicted felon and had concealed a firearm, was the final straw for Cummings.
“I’m convinced that she is not the person to lead that agency. My trust has eroded,” Cummings later told Diane Rhem during another interview Wednesday on WAMU. “This is supposed to be the No. 1 protective agency in the world, guarding the most protected person in the world, the most protected house in the world. And it appears they are not doing a very good job.”
Initially after the hearing Tuesday, Cummings refused to call on Pierson to step down, saying, “the jury is still out,” and that he didn’t “think she should necessarily resign.”
“I think that we are going to have to keep a very close watch on this agency,” he said Tuesday following a closed-door executive session with Pierson.
Cummings, who said he expects to have a one-on-one conversation with Pierson on Wednesday, is now the first member of Congress to flatly call for Pierson to go.
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio