The man who jumped the White House fence Sept. 19 pushed his way past a female Secret Service agent before he was overpowered by a male agent in the building’s large East Room.
After he pushed past the female agent, he ran past the stairway that leads to the president’s personal quarters before he was detained.
Credit: Peter Sharkey/WhiteHouseMuseum.org
The Secret Service’s response to Gonzalez’s dash from the front railing was slowed because perimeter alarms — dubbed “crash boxes” — had been muffled at the request of the White House’s ushers.
The man, Omar Gonzalez, is a former soldier, and was having delusions. The president was not at the White House when Gonzalez ran into the building.
The new revelation was published by the Washington Post and CBS.
The Post credited the new information to whistleblowers and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Oversight subcommittee on Homeland Security.
Chaffetz said the intrusion was a “failure of leadership” by the Secret Service.
Secret Service Director Julia Pierson has said the intrusion was “unacceptable” to her.
The report — likely leaked by Chaffetz — comes one day before Pierson testifies at his committee on Tuesday.
“The agency needs a solution that goes deeper than more fences and more people,” Chaffetz told the Washington Post.
“It must examine what message is being sent to the men and women who protect the president when their leader sacrifices security to appease superficial concerns of White House ushers.”