40-mile-per-hour zone and stopped, and tears, officer i'm late for marriage counseling and got away with a warning. i heard a laugh from liz. did that happen to you? okay. i'm gretchen carlson. time for shep. >> thanks. door to door, in search of ebola in america. a team of experts trying to track down anyone whoels may be infected with the deadly virus. doctors in texas are monitoring children who had contact with their ebola patient. we'll look at the race to contain the disease. plus, the intruder accused of running into the white house in court this afternoon. even as we learn more about another incident in which a former convict with a gun got on an elevator with our president. let's get to it. >> now live on fox news channel "shepard smith reporting." >> and first from fox this wednesday afternoon the first person diagnosed with ebola in the united states told officials he had just come back from

liberia the first time he went to the hospital. that's according to the man's sister. he says the patient's name is thomas eric duncan. he's now in isolation at a hospital in dallas. according to the reporting of this centers for disease control and prevention a team of senior health experts is looking for anybody who came in contact with that man. in other words, a sort of manhunt for ebola. officials say the patient flew from liberia to dallas nearly two weeks ago. there are no direct flights between the u.s. and africa. the reuters news agency reports the liberian government claims the guy traveled through brussels, belgium. the cdc reports it has not confirmed that. back at the news desk in new york, what can you shows us? >> this started about two weeks ago, friday. the patient departed from liberia. the next day on the 20th arrived in texas. it wasn't until a few days later on that wednesday, the 24th, that he started to show symptoms. then a couple days later the friday, the 26th, he went and sought treatment and sent home

the same day. again a couple days later on monday, the 28th, put in isolation and, of course, it wasn't until yesterday that the cdc confirmed the first case of ebola diagnosed ebola here in the u.s. >> all right. ryan, thanks. hospitals today confirmed that when the guy first sought treatment, the patient did not tell or did tell a nurse that he had traveled from africa but for some reason the nurse failed to pass along that information. just sort of slipped the nurse's mind. they say doctors found out he had a low-grade fever and gave him antibiotics and sent him home. of course he had ebola. the head of the cdc says it is not impossible that other people in the u.s. may have gotten the disease. school officials in texas say at least five students went to classes after possibly having contact with the man. officials say they're monitoring those kids at their homes but the head of the cdc tells fox news, don't freak out. don't suggest anybody get all nervous about this. officials are working quickly to find anybody who could have gotten the disease.

>> we have a nine-person team in dallas working with the hospital, with the health department and the family to identify every possible contact and we'll be monitoring every one of those individuals for 21 days. that's the tried and true public health means of stopping an ebola outbreak. >> hes also reiterated ebola is not an airborne disease. you can't get it through the air. it spreads through bodily fluids only. the world health organization reports there have been more than 6500 cases of ebola, at least reported cases in africa during this outbreak. more than 3,000 people have now confirmed to have died. analysts say the numbers are probably pretty low because there aren't enough labs over there to test everybody. john roberts works atlanta for us live at the centers for disease control and prevention. what more are we learning today, john? >> we're learning a little more about the condition of thomas duncan. we're told by hospital officials he is in serious but stable condition. getting some kind of -- some conflicting reports as well as

to how sick he is. hospital officials were saying he was talkative, asking for food, but i understand from other sour sources his organ system is coming under a lot of spres from the virus, considering how sick he was. a couple troubling developments. the idea that five children were among the close contacts that he had after coming down with symptoms of ebola and the fact that they went to four schools in the dallas area. of course those kids are now out of school. they are being kept in isolation and, in fact, the public health department has said if the family contacts do not stay self-isolated they may have to try to take stricter measures to keep them isolated. they are not looking at people he might have flown over with on the aircraft. they are only looking at people after he got sick. here's what dr. frieden of the centers for disease control told me earlier today. >> the stop watch begins on the 24th, wednesday, when he gets the symptoms. the real important thing is to make sure that we identify every

possible contact from that moment on and trace them very carefully. that's tried and true public health. >> reporter: of course another troubling development, you mentioned it at the top, when this guy came in on the 26th he was asked if he traveled anywhere and he said yes, i came from liberia. that information was not passed along to the team. it is sometimes contentious press conference rick perry put on today, a hospital official explained what happened. here's dr. mark lester. >> regretfully that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team. and as a result, the full import of that information wasn't factored in to the clinical decision making. >> so that is a serious ball that was dropped according to dr. fouchy the head of the national institutes on allergies and infectious disease. that should raise a very big red flag among health providers across the country when you ask somebody where they're from you need to take it seriously. what's interesting, too, about that case, shep, is when he came

in -- when he came in, doctors thought he had a low-grade virus, yet they prescribed him antibiotics which have no effect against viruses. >> that made absolutely no sense. down in dallas, though, i guess officials are working to reassure people? >> yeah. they're trying to keep a lid on this, governor rick perry said believe me, we got the team in place to be able to do this and rather sometimes bombastic mayor of dallas mike rollins said there is zero chance if someone is not showing symptoms they cannot infect anyone. it's not a min my skull but zero chance. the message was aimed at the parents of the children these kids might have gone to school with a couple days this week after they had been exposed to the ebola virus. >> john roberts keeping us updated from the cdc. turn to dr. shafner president of the national foundation for infectious diseases. he's also a member of a cdc advisory committee and joins us live. nice to see you again. thank you. >> hello, shep. good to be with you.

>> i feel like lost in some of our coverages has been an important aspect that this is very difficult to contract. >> thank you for saying so. that's the important thing. when you're still healthy, you cannot transmit this virus. that's very important. you only start to be able to transmit it when you become sick and then only if the other person has contact with your body fluids. blood, vomit, diarrhea, saliva or the like. it's not easily transmitted at all. it's a matter of concern, but it's not easily transmitted. and the public health investigation, plus good clinical care of this patient, we should be proud of that. this is going to be contain this virus. it's not going to spread. >> well that's great to hear. i'm glad to hear you say it. initially there were questions he wasn't feeling well when he was on the plane, but you're sitting a row away from this guy on the plane, you can't get it? >> that's correct. that's absolutely correct.

now, what's more troubling is what you've just reported, namely, that when he did become sick and reported that he had come from liberia, that information was not passed on and appreciated. that seems strange and troubling. there's a lesson for us all because we've been telling every doctor, any patient who comes with a fever, ask two questions, have you been outside of the united states and if so where. >> when he went in to get that first treatment, he went to the doctor, he was misdiagnosed and sent home, when you stick out your tongue and say ah and they put a tongue depressor there, that nurse must be on some level of, i don't know, could be -- she could get it, right? >> so it's not that easy because she wasn't directly exposed to his saliva, but nonetheless, we would consider her a contact. educate her. make sure that she's taking her temperature daily and we would be checking in with her or him on a very regular basis, on a

daily basis. >> all right. dr. shafner good to talk to you. >> always, shep. >> bottom line, no panicking. not anywhere near you most likely. u.s. airlines are keeping in touch with the cdc about how to prevent more ebola cases in this country according to a spokesperson for jet blue. airline stocks believe it or not, dropped 3% earlier to you. and the analysts say that's one reason the dow plunged 200 points a couple hours ago. the fox business network's gerri willis is live on the news desk. the airline stocks didn't drop because of this ebola scare. if so they are more rons. >> they're not more rons. the sars virus robbed airlines of a lot of revenue and that's the fear that this could happen again, but as you've been pointing out intelligently it's unlikely this ises going to spread in this in country, right. senator rob portman of ohio calling for screening of passengers. airlines, tends not to be u.s.,

but european airlines flying out of west africa are screening people for fevers if people are getting on the airplanes with fevers. that's one of the first symptoms that presents itself. also, we're hearing that all those direct flights into the u.s., big calls for possibly quarantines of people coming in from africa. the detail here, though, a lot of people are missing is this. most of the flights out of west africa are not coming directly into the u.s. what tends to happen is these folks disembark somewhere else in europe, possibly paris, london, somewhere else and then come to the u.s. so the whole idea of tracking these people is more difficult than you may think. >> there's a business opportunity here. some companies working on vaccines, right? >> that's absolutely right and they're up today. techmera is a company that made the vaccine that helped the two folks who came in from west africa back early in august. that stock is up 26% today. another company up 4%.

serebta up 6%. new link genetics up almost 9% today. so we're seeing a cluster of companies here trying to come up with a solution of this problem, working hard at it and hopefully we'll see it all soon. >> we'll look for you this afternoon on the biz. thanks. >> thank you. an armed former convict in the same elevator with the president of the united states. what we know about how that happened. and the new calls for the head of the secret service to go away. step down before she, as one person put it, embarrasses herself further. that's coming up. fox news desk in oxford, mississippi, this afternoon. glad to have you with us.

we know we're not the center of your life, but we'll do our best to help you connect to what is.

a fox urgent now. the man accused of chopping off his co-worker's head has left the hospital and set to see a judge in minutes. we have a quick video of the suspect arriving at the jail inside that white van there. officials say that he'll see the judge over a video conference. won't actually go into the courtroom. the suspect, a man named alton nolen, he could get the death penalty. prosecutors say he's had some infatuation with beheadings and that's a quote. his bosses had just suspended him from a job at a food processing plant outside oklahoma city when he walked into work and cut off a woman's head. investigators say he then cut the neck and face of another woman before a company executive shot him.

prosecutors say that suspension is -- was the likely reason why he attacked, despite the reports that he he tried to convert his coworkers to islam. the fbi reports it's still on the case. lawmakers are hashing out and lashing out now at the secret service yet again. man, they're giving pe ing it. another security breach with a man with a gun and three convictions for assault and battery, rode in an elevator with the president of the united states. sources tell fox news it just happened, two weeks ago, at cdc headquarters in atlanta where president obama talked about the u.s. response to the ebola crisis. sources tell fox news the man in the elevator was an armed security contractor. despite those assault convictions. they say that the secret service agent did not know he was carrying a gun while on the elevator, even after they talked to him about recording the president on his phone. in fact, sources say the secret service finally found out that the gun was there when the cdc fired him and he agreed to hand

over his weapon. secret service director julia pierson said she did not speaks to the president about this. she told lawmakers yesterday she's briefed president obama only once this year and that buzz about the man who jumped the white house fence and bolted in the executive mansion three days after the incident at the cdc. they're on quite a run at the secret service. now democrats and republicans in congress say they've lost trust in the head of the secret service. >> i think it's time that she be fired by the president of the united states or she resign. she either did not tell the president, which she should have done, or did tell the president and lied to congress. >> my confidence and my trust in this director, miss pierson, has eroded and i do not feel comfortable with her in that position. >> to be frank with you, it was very difficult for me to sleep last night. >> but they used remarkable restraint. anyway, that was the top democrat on the house oversight

committee. elijah cummings of maryland. he later seemed to backtrack a little bit when he sent out this tweet, i'm quoting i have not decided about pierson but i'm not comfortable about the safety of the president of the united states of america. seems nobody is. mike emanuel live in d.c. another democrat has called for the secret service director to step down. head on. >> well, that's right. new york senator chuck schumer is expect examine ese expected . top lawmakers are calling for a top to bottom review of the secret service not as a got you but to fix it. >> i think we need an overhaul, both policy wise and culturally, as well, but i would prefer to have experts review this and report to congress, rather than specific certain members of congress telling secret service what the policy should be. >> i do think that the challenge may be more than one person. i would like to see an investigation of the culture and

the procedure and the accountability in the secret service. >> speaker john boehner fully supports mccaul's plan for a top to bottom independent review of the agency. that kind of big picture look at the secret service appears to be gaining in support. the fence jumper in court. what happened? >> white house fence jumper omar gonzalez was in federal court in washington this afternoon. gonzalez pled not guilty to three counts. he faces a federal charge of unlawfully entering a restricted building, without, on september 19th. if convicted the charge carries a maximum of ten years in prison. gonzalez faces two local charges, carrying a dangerous weapon, a knife, and unlawful possession of ammunition. >> mike emanuel on capitol hill, thank you. the secret service develops its own culture with each president and that can affect how it treats potential threats to the commander in chief.

according to our own judge. he'll join us to explain, next.

there is breaking news now on fox news channel. the head of the secret service just resigned. we've now just received a statement by secretary jonathan. today julia pierson the director of the united states secret service, offered her resignation and i accept it, he writes. i salute her 30 years of distinguished service to the secret service and the nation. mike emanuel with pus. that didn't take long. >> no, shep. you got a sense when you heard bipartisan calls for her to go as early as last night and followed up this morning and then some other leading lawmakers expected to examine out. we expected chuck schumer to come out at the top of the neck hour. south carolina's lindsey graham to call for her resignation and realized she was losing

confidence of a lot of key people here in washington. we don't know at this point about whether there are conversations with the president directly or with senior members at the white house, but at that point when you're a washington official and you hear calls for you to go, and there's a big fix ahead of the agency you're leading, quite often the thing to do is turn in your resignation and then if the president or the secretary of homeland security accepts it, obviously, you go and it's time for new leadership. >> yep. and that's just happened. mike emanuel on the hill. ed henry at the white house. the white house which yesterday said the president has complete confidence in the director and now all of a sudden 24 hours later, i guess the confidence is something less than complete? >> that's right, shep. look these things move quickly. remember when the white house was standing behind general shinseki and allegations continued to mount, the investigations coming in, look, give us time, he's rig to fix it. shinseki the day he stepped down gave a speech?

washington saying he wanted to stick it out and clean this up but by the end of the day, the president had accepted his resignation. we see the same with julia pierson. the question here at the white house is whether we'll see the president himself come out and talk about this or whether josh earnest scheduled to have been out here about 20 minutes ago, will just come out and address the media about this. obviously yesterday there were about 80, 85% of the questions in talking to administration officials who counted it up after the briefing yesterday were about the secret service mess. josh earnest yesterday and then this morning in various media interviews still standing behind julia pierson saying she had the full confidence of the president, but as mike emanuel pointed out, a growing number of democrats either calling for her resignation or raising questions about her performance and about whether frankly the president's safety, the safety of the first family, was in jeopardy, that just made this ununtenable. >> you know, the weirdest thing of all, the attitude they had toward it. when she sat up there yesterday

and said, we have the full confidence, and that oh, they acted with great restraint, when some yahoo entered the white house and gone all the way to the east room without being shot and she said, oh, they used great restraint, i'm like that's not what you should have done. you don't use great restraint when somebody yahoo is busting up into the white house. how did anybody think that was okay and ed, henry, how did the white house think it would be cool to have confidence in someone who runs the organization that let that happen? >> well, no doubt about it, shep. look, the pressure was on. you saw that again and again and again. and, you know, i talked to secret service officials yesterday saying they were stunned she didn't do a better job in answering these questions that basically, that she seemed almost robotic in the words of one official in terms of answering this, rather than showing real remorse, real concern and a plan to actually fix it. you never heard that.

you heard her on defense. after days of preparation, they knew these hearings were coming, there was no actual formal plan of here's how we're going to fix this moving forward and here's how we're going to restore the confidence, not just to the president but to the american people. >> this has been going on a long time. we can go back to the salahis walking up in there for a dinner and one episode after another episode. i mean most recently, the president of the united states is in the elevator with a guy who's got a gun and a criminal history. do they have a bigger problem -- they must than just this one incident on the white house yard. >> that's what a lot of people are thinking at this point. you had the president going to the mandela memorial service, you had a fake interpreter up there with a criminal background close to the president of the united states. nobody picked that up. you had the recent incidents within the pastweeks. you had the incidence of secret service agents getting drunk overseas and embarrassing headlines there and so this is an elite unit.

ed will tell you from traveling with the white house over the years, and i had the privilege of traveling at the white house for four and a half years, there are a lot of brave men and women who represent the united states secret service who are willing to take bullets for the president or a top v.i.p. they are protecting and so you have these embarrassing incidents and a lot of people are saying basically these guys and xwals need to be held to a higher standard. so it became pretty apparent after a series of bad headlines that a culture change is needed at the secret service, a top to bottom review being called for on capitol hill, but new leadership as well. >> ed, you're there, just about every day. you have been for all the years you've been working for fox news channel. you worked for cnn before you came to fox news channel. i wonder if since this stuff happened, since across the yard, through the front door, off to the east room, since then, is there a change you notice in the secret service at the white house? i mean, could i go to bed at night knowing the president of the united states is going to be safe?

>> yes. i think there have definitely been, in fairness to julia pierson, she couldn't reveal to the public, she couldn't -- we just got a two-minute warning for a press briefing. we expect it to be josh earnest. see if the president emerges. the bottom line is that she couldn't reveal those security protocols in a public hearing. she went behind closed doors. i have seen a noticeable difference in the number of officers along the fence line. added a secondary fence ahead of the normal fence you see on tv to try to do that. we should also note, as we talk about the problems in the secret service, most of the time they get it right thankfully and the president of the united states does not get hurt. we should be concerned and yes, they deserve intense scrutiny when they fail at their job, but most days they get it right, shep. >> yeah. and there's no doubt about that. but it's almost like we always have the saying with the terrorists, they only have to be right once. well they only have to be wrong once. is the thinking now, that the next time someone goes running

across the lawn, if the dogs don't go, somebody will shoot this person? >> yeah. look i was here before the incident everyone was talking about, doing a live broadcast with bret baier and somebody jumped over the fence a few days before the big event we saw and bottom line is there were dogs on them, guns in his face. normally that happens. there was a huge breakdown two fridays ago where there was a complete communications failure and they failed do their own emergency response plan to jump on this, shep. >> i know we're only seconds away from josh earnest there. is your thinking this is going to be top of the order here? i want to hear what they is have to say now? >> no doubt about it. he will have to announce that. see if the president has a new pick or not. no doubt that will be what josh earnest talks about and what we'll be pressing him on. yesterday the vast majority of the questions he got, despite isis and all the other issues out there, was all about the secret service, people demanding answers. you can bet that will happen again. >> you got it. my guess is, ed, i would think you got to show strength now.

that's not an agency that can sit in a vacuum for very long. if there's not a decision today there has to be one quick. at least from the public's perspective, and the way things look, the optics, they got to fix that now. >> no doubt. you're right. because morale is at a low right now because of the secret service has been pounded again and again. i'm being told, sorry to be peeking at my iphone, it's going to be josh earnest and not the president coming out. it's going to be josh earnest. we would expect it's not going to be a personnel announcement about who's coming in but an explanation of how this went down and some sort of plan about what they expect, a timetable for the president. because as you say they have to move quickly to restore the integrity of the agency, but also figure out the battle plan moving forward, shep. >> i know we're seconds away, but can you give me a sense of what the attitude has been like? on tv we're very careful to be respectful of the secret service because of the job they do and because my goodness, you certainly are thankful for the good men and women who do that every day. i wonder if there's been an adversal thing since all the

media has been hanging them up. >> a lot of the secret service officials i've talked to have sort of been down in the dumps and one i spoke to last night said, you know we're going to get through this but it's been tough. they haven't been lashing at the media but saying yes, we've been taking the abuse. some say privately they realize they made mistakes and have to fix it. they haven't been lashing out at us but noting these have been rough days for the agency, no doubt about it. >> before you go and do a big had thing like even if you're going to have a speech, give a speech, people prep you when you work. when you're the head of the secret service and you're about to testify before the congress of the united states of america, somebody is briefing you and telling you yeah, you might say this, might not say that, do rehearsing, practicing of your answers, whoever did that briefing, that person could go too i think would be fine. >> no doubt about it. that's why you saw this intense pressure from democrats. this was a nonpartisan issue, not just republicans beating up on the administration at this hearing yesterday. it was democrats, openly saying

is the president's security in jeopardy. this needs to be fixed, shep. >> well, two minutes, sometimes, at my house, two minutes is 120 seconds. you know, but i realize -- >> not at the white house. >> no. they have -- you should get the kind of clock they use so we know how to keep time, white house daylight time. we should know what that is. >> you would be pushing into cavuto's hour, i think. >> that won't happen. >> mike emanuel, do you have any insight as we wait for josh earnest to come out. here's josh earnest. let's hear it from him. >> good afternoon, everybody. >> good afternoon. >> apologize for the delayed start of today's briefing. it's been a busy day for us here at the administration. i suspect many of you have seen the statement from the secretary of homeland security, jeh johnson. in that statement, he noted that he had accepted this afternoon the resignation of julia pierson, the director of the united states secret service. before i get to your questions let me tell you this afternoon the president had the

opportunity to telephone director pierson, to express his appreciation for her service to the agency and to the country. she dedicated more than 30 years of her life at the united states secret service and to the important work that they do over there. as i mentioned yesterday, she spent several hours in front of the cameras yesterday answering difficult questions from members of congress and the context of that interaction she took responsibility for the shortcomings of the agency that she led and she took responsibility for fixing them. and that quite simply i think is a testament to her professionalism and to her character. so with that, jim, why don't you get us started on questions. >> thanks, josh. in that phone call, had she already submitted her resignation or did the president ask for it? >> yes. in a meeting earlier this afternoon, the director of -- the secretary of homeland

security met with director pierson and accepted her resignation at that time. >> now, as recently as this morning, you were expressing the president's support for her. if there was such support why did the president allow secretary johnson to accept her resignation? >> well, director pierson offered her resignation today because she believed that it was in the best interest of the agency to which she has dedicated her career. the secretary agreed with that assessment. the president did as well. over the last several days, we've seen recent and accumulating reports raising questions about the performance of the agency. and the president concluded that new leadership of that agency was required. >> did the president take into consideration the mounting opposition was rising from the hill? bipartisan opposition for her? >> no. i think what the secretary of homeland security and the president were both considering

were the performance of the agency and in light of recent and accumulating reports about the agency, i think legitimate questions were raised, at least they were in the mind of both the secretary and the president. >> did the president have a timetable for replacing her? >> he does not. as you know and as you probably saw from the statement that secretary johnson issued, the president recommended and secretary johnson agreed, that joe clancy, someone who had served with distinction in the secret service until the summer of 2011, would be a good candidate for serving as the acting director of secret service until a more permanent replacement can be found. mr. clancy is somebody who had a distinguished career in the secret service prior to serving in the secret service he graduated from west point but he is somebody over the course of his tenure at the secret service

rose to the level of being the special agent in charge of the presidential protective division. he is somebody who has earned the respect and admiration of the men and women who are his colleagues at the united states secret service, he is somebody who has the full confidence of the president, the first lady. so he is an appropriate choice to lead the agency until a permanent director is found. >> if i could ask you another news event today, the president met with prime minister netanyahu. wondering if the president raised any concerns about new construction in east jerusalem that some israeli officials confirmed today, or the eviction of palestinians from their homes in a neighborhood in east jerusalem? >> well, jim, i can tell you that the united states is deeply concerned by reports that the israeli government has moved forward with the planning process in the sensitive area or in a sensitive area of east jerusalem.

the step is contrary to israel's stated goal of negotiating a permanent status agreement with the palestinians and it would send a very troubling message if they were to proceed with tenders or construction in that area. this development will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance israel from its closest allies, poison the atmosphere, not only with the palestinians but also with the arab governments, with which prime minister netanyahu said he wanted to build relations, it also would call into question israel's ultimate commitments to a peaceful negotiated settlement with the palestinians. additionally the united states condemns the recent occupation of residential buildings and the palestinian neighborhood of sawan in east jerusalem near the old city, by individuals who are associated with an organization whose agenda, by definition, stokes tensions between israelis and palestinians. these provocative acts, these acts by the -- by this organization, only serves to

escalate tensions at a moment when those tensions have already been high. the final status of jerusalem should not be prejudged and can only be legitimately determined through direct negotiations between the parties. at this sensitive time, we call on all parties to redouble their efforts to restore trust and confidence, promote calm and return to the path of peace. >> so were those discussed? >> this did come up in the conversation, yes. >> was there any indication that the timing of this was related to the prime minister's visit? >> the question about the timing you would have to ask the israeli government about that. >> okay. jeff? >> back to the secret service. the problems at the agency are beyond one person. would the president like to see more resignations or firings as a result of the issues? >> well, jeff, let me say a couple things about that. the first is the president has nothing, but the highest regard for the men and women of the

secret service. these are individuals who are highly trained, highly skilled professionals, who wake up every morning prepared to put their lives on the line to protect the first family and protect the white house. that is a commitment to service ta is worthy of our respect. at the same time, as secretary johnson mentioned in his statement, the deputy secretary of department of homeland security will be conducting a review into the september 19th incident in which an individual scaled the fence along the north lawn of the white house and was able to gain access to the white house. that review will be conducted by the deputy secretary. when that review has been concluded it will be put before ap independent panel of experts to get their outside perspective on what changes to white house security may be required.

that panel will also be responsible for making recommendations to the secretary about who would be a good candidate, but to lead the united states secret service. they will certainly consider individuals from outside that agency. importantly, they will alsos offer a recommendation to the secretary about whether or not a review of broader issues concerning the secret service is necessary. so we are confident and the president is confident that the department of homeland security will take a hard look at this situation, that we'll assemble a panel of outside experts who will take a hard look at this situation and develop a set of recommendations that will ensure that the united states secret service can meet the very high standard of performance that they set for themselves into does the president believe that more people besides the director need to go? >> the president believes that

an independent pam should review the results of this assessment as being conducted by the deputy secretary of the department of homeland security to determine what steps are appropriate moving forward. >> does the president or the white house generally believe that any of the shortfalls or any of the problems at the secret service are related to shortfalls that are connected to sequestration? >> again, jeff, you're raising questions that will be part of this broader, careful review that's being conducted by the department secretary of homeland security. after he's conducted his review he would be in a better position to answer that question than i can from here. jim? >> earlier this morning you expressed confidence and said that white house had confidence in julia pierson. what changed over the course of the day? >> well, obviously the first thing that changed, jim, director pierson offered her resignation. she did so to the secretary of homeland security and she did that because she believed it was in the best interest of the agency to which she's dedicated

the last 30 years of her life. the secretary agreed with that assessment as did the president. they both agreed with that assessment because of the repeat and accumulating reports that raised legitimate questions about the performance of the agency. those reports led the secretary and the president to conclude that a new direction was necessary. >> and just to ask you about this latest incident to have emerged, i guess it happened prior to the fence jumping incident, but security contractor at the cdc in the elevator who was armed in the presence of the president in violation of secret service protocols, did director pierson brief the president on that incident? >> jim, i can tell you that white house first learned of that incident yesterday afternoon shortly before it was reported by -- before publicly reported by a news organization. >> she did not tell him about that or the agency did not tell the white house about that? you didn't know about it until yesterday? >> until shortly before it was

reported publicly. >> and that's a problem, right? >> well, i would -- i think the -- it would be accurate for you to assume that when incidents like that occur, that there would be a pretty open channel of communication between the united states secret service, the department of homeland security and ultimately the white house. >> does he want -- does the president want to see the channels of communication to be more open, more transparent? does the white house feel like it's kept in the dark a little bit too much by the secret service in terms of these problems that occur from time to time? >> well, the -- well, i think this will be part of some of the things that this independent panel will consider. what is the appropriate level of secret service response to incidents like this when they crop up. and that, obviously, would involve communicating reforms or

even information where necessary to senior members of the department of homeland security and again, ultimately in some occasions, to the white house. >> and does the president think that julia pierson let him down? >> well, like i said, the president took time out of his day this afternoon to call director pierson to thank her for her service to the agency and to the country. and the president is deeply appreciative of her service. she spent 30 years at the united states secret service because she believes so strongly in the core mission of the agency. >> if i can ask one question about the cdc, on september 16th the president said in the unlikely event that someone with ebola does reach our shores, he used those words, unlikely event, as we know there is a case down in dallas, did the president -- >> there you go. the update from the white house on the change of the guard now at the secret service. we can drop the thing now. it is still astounding and worth repeating it seems to me, that

yesterday, after we knew a man and had a -- had a record, was in the elevator with the president, that some guy ran across the front yard and got into the white house, that just a few years before, someone had shot at the white house and the secret service didn't know it, with all of that knowledge, the white house still had full confidence and still had full confidence according to josh earnest just now until she submitted her resignation. what's changed? she submitted her resignation. should there be more open lines of communication? when the president is in the elevator with a man with a gun who has a record there ought to be more direct open communication with the white house. that seems like an easy question to answer, doesn't it? yet we didn't get that as a yes answer. our senior analyst judge napolitano is with us on the fox news deck. you know, this is insanity. how is it possible that they couldn't react when that happens, you can react.

you can go out on a limb and say yeah, this wasn't good. >> shep, i share the same frustrations that you do. josh earnest is an intelligent guy, was giving robotic answers. this is a terrible black eye for the administration. literally in the president's backyard. it's obvious that secretary johnson told director pierson this morning that she had to resign. these resignations do not -- oh, i'll submit my resignation and see if you accept it. that's not the way it works. it's obvious she was woefully ill prepared and underprepared for yesterday. sent her up there knowing she would embarrass herself and be forced to resign or she somehow thought that a cavalier, uncaring, again robotic attitude she manifested yesterday, would somehow satisfy the legitimate demands of everybody across the board for why wasn't the president protected. why didn't you know the sign language guy had been convicted of murder. why didn't you know the guy in the elevator was carrying a gun

and charged with assault three times. you have an obligation to know this. how could you let somebody with a gun get in a small elevator with the president. she couldn't answer that stuff. >> when someone ran across the yard and got into the house, your response would be, well, our agents exercised great restraint. bad idea. great restraint, bad idea. >> this is the problem with the culture of the secret service changing with each presidency, with the perception that the president wants a warm and -- it's probably an inaccurate perception, but a perception on the part of the secret service that a president wants a warm and fuzzy secret service as opposed to a palace guard secret service. their job is to keep him safe, well and alive, no matter what their -- and consistent with the constitution, of course, no matter what their p.r. may be. i don't know the director pierson was even in the job long enough, she's only been in there

since march of 2013, to have affected the culture of the secret service. but a culture that allowed this guy to run across the lawn too the building and then be tackled by an off-duty secret service guy in there giving a tour of the building, he wasn't even on the clock, was just lucky that he happened to be there and tackle this guy, is utterly unacceptable no matter what your poll it ticks are in the united states today and the president knows that. i'm sure he asked her to resign. they have to revamp the secret service from bottom up. i say that having had personal exposure to many of these people and the people to whom i've had personal exposure i can only characterize as dedicated, hardworking, fearless, selfless people who would literally take a bullet for the president if they had to. >> yeah. they got a systems problem. mike emanuel was at the white house for years and years and spent a lot of time over there. mike, the organization that is the white house is like a battle

ship. you don't turn it on a dime. >> right. >> this has to have been going on for a long time. this isn't about this president or this presidency. this is older than that, isn't it? >> well, absolutely. you look at the mandate of the secret service is to protect the president of the united states. the first family, the white house and other dignitaries as necessary and it's always been a very sacred honor to do so and a lot of professionals are willing to take a bullet for the president or whoever they are protecting, but you have incidents brought up in yesterday's hearing on capitol hill, 2011, shots fired, secret service officers draw their weapons, and they didn't discover until four days later when a housekeeper noticed that the front of the white house had been damaged, bullets actually struck the front of the white house. that was one of the episodes that they were fired up about. both republicans and democrats. like you heard shots, why didn't you fully investigate? and then the elevator incident, jason chaffetz knew about that

from talking to whistleblowers and asked director pierson if she had talked to the president about these various threats. she said she had spoken to the president once and so he thought instantly okay, so he thought, she hasn't been fully forthcoming with the president, and that whole story broad, and you hear in a josh earnest, they didn't know about it until they started hearing the news reports. >> clearly, very quickly, the new acting director of the secret service, he appointed joseph clancy, who's been around a long time. former special agent in charge of the presidential -- he actually retired back in 2011, and the president said in a statement today, i appreciate his willingness to leave his position in the private sector on very short notice and return to public service for a period. what a job ahead for the new acting director, joseph clancy. >> wow. >> with all of these problems. >> and you see his face.

he's a very familiar face from covering the white house. if you look back at former presidents, you probably will see him very close to the president. so somebody close -- who knows that culture. >> we'll be back right after this. take 6 tylenol in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. onward!

the breaking news, a man accused of chopping off his co-worker's head has pled not guilty. they had it over a videoconference after the suspect arrived in the jail from the hospital. alton noelen is the suspect. he could in the end face the death penalty. prosecutors said he had some sort of infatuation with beheadings, unquote and his boss had just suspended him from the job outside oklahoma city. so he entered a plea of not

guilty. and former secret service director julian pearson has resigned after major security breaches at the white house. remember, she's the one who was brought in after the secret service was having the other problems, the drinking scandal when on the road with the president. they brought in julia pearson. pi pierson. just earlier this morning josh was saying the president has full confidence and now the president has come to the concludes that my confidence and trust has eroded. i do not feel comfortable with her in that position. that's super elijah cummings, the democrat who is in charge of things. but this is not new. we -- a guy landed a helicopters on the white house lawn. we have a fine look back. >> shep, it was only tasked with

protecting the president after preside president roosevelt was -- but a man with a revolver was reportedly allowed to meet him after he told security the president was expecting him. another intruder with the weapon made it into president taft's white house. he actually made it past security, but was taught in the corridor. turned out-had a knife in his pocket. over the years secret service adjusted to the threat, but they were caught by surprise in 1974, when an army private landed a stolen chopper right on the white house lan twice. the first time they didn't show, but the-second time they barraged -- 20 years later a man actually stole the cessna and crashed himself on the south lawn.

>> all right. when newsbreaks out, we'll break in. thanks very much. i'm in oxford, mississippi. go rebels, beat 'bama. it's time. i'll see you back here tomorrow, if not before. neil cavuto is after this. (vo) watching. waiting. for that moment, where right place meets right time. and when i find it- i go for it. (announcer) at scottrade, we share your passion for trading. that's why we give you the edge, with innovative charting and trading features, plus powerful mobile apps so you're

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but we might not get sick. that doesn't mean investors aren't getting sick, just one case of ebola leading to a sell-off, worries about a shaky economy is not helping matters any. welcome, everybody. the fact is the ebola scare is having a very real scare. just airline stocks getting slammed on reported that the victim traveled via brussels. it is believed that up to 18 people may have already been