multiple lawmakers, latest lindsey graham saying that julia pierson needs to go. in her multihour testimony yesterday, at the she failed to tell the house oversight committee about that incident in the elevator. >> what percentage of the time do you inform the president if his personal security is in any way, shape or form been breached? >> percent of the time, 100% of the time we would advise the president. >> in calendar year 2014, how many times has that happened? >> i have not briefed him with the exception of one occasion for the september 19th incident. >> joining me now, the author of this book "the first family detail" ronald kessler. welcome. >> good to be with you. >> let's begin with this incident in the elevator. the fact that they didn't know until after the fact and until after this guy had a cell phone out and he was trying to take pictures of the president and they told him to put it down did they realize he had a gun. what's protocol if you get in the elevator with the president? >> protocol is you never allow anybody in the elevator with the pres

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

they spoke last monday about pierson possibly coming back to the debate team. he said he scrunched down in the hallway when the shots rang in the hallway before breaking down when he found out the shooter was his friend, karl pierson. >> my first instinct is to want to defend him but i know that's wrong. it is indefensible, what he did. it is horrible. it is hard to process those emotions. >> i'm karl pierson at arapahoe high school. >> reporter: co-captains on the debate team weren't close friends but he felt close enough to help him. >> speech and debate was his life and the fact he was not there crushed him a little bit. it made him tense and angry. >> reporter: it had been a stressful fall term for pierson. he had grown angry from losing his coveted spot on the team months ago which made the coach, the librarian a wanted man in pierson's eyes. >> karl and murphy did not get along. whatever it was escalated to a death threat. >> his intent was evil and his evil intent was to harm multiple individuals. >> reporter: police say pierson stormed into the school h

should director pierson step down? does president obama think that's the right course of action at this point? >> the president and the white house have confidence in pierson's ability to do this job. we have confidence in the review that she's undertaking about exactly what happened, the incident that you referred to that happened a couple weeks ago. it's something they're taking seriously. they've upped some of the security procedures already. and she's undertaking that review. we're letting that process go forward. the president has confidence that she has the ability to run the department. and to conduct this review. we'll see what comes of that. >> i know josh continues to say the president has confidence in the secret service. i guess the question is why. because lawmakers on capitol hill yesterday who i was speaking with, just a lot of americans, say they're losing confidence. so why does the president still have confidence, particularly when we're just learning about this breach? atlanta that occurred when he w

as gloria said, look at what got them to julia pierson.chief of staff and also a she and it was coming off of a very big scandal where it looked like it was a boy's club and they wanted to have a woman in there and it didn't work out. ironically for the same reasons that the men had problems because it was a culture of cover-up and not having actual accountability so it was gender neutral. but finding somebody who is going to be appropriate, but not too heavy handed is not easy. >> it will have to come from the outside, i think. they went inside and stuck with the culture, now i think they have to go somewhere else. >> they need somebody with a lot of credibility and experience, someone who can take that secret service and make it what it is supposed to be, the elite organization that protects the president and the first family. all of those who work at the white house. guys, thanks very much. you can follow us on twitter, tweet me at wolf blitzer or tweet the show at cnn sit room. and join us tomorrow right here at the situation room or d

>> this week on "talk to al jazeera", one of the most recognizable singers of a generation - kate pierson of the b-52s. >> (singing the song "love shack"). >> the greatest thing i think a band can do is give people this joy and make them happy and make them dance or sing or just, you know, just kind of give them a joy. >> the group was once given the title "america's favorite party band" by rolling stone, but pierson said beneath the bee-hives, there was a message. >> we felt we were misunderstood and we felt like everyone's just calling us wacky, wacky, wacky and they didn't understand the incredible seriousness of the band. >> the band's cult following continued to grow until a tragedy in the '80s, when lead guitarist, ricky wilson, died of aids. >> we didn't know he had aids until he passed away. so we were told to be silent and that was very very difficult. >> her first break into music was a protest band in the civil rights era. >> so we were the sun donuts and we all wrote and one of the girls wrote about environmental... you know, tomorrow there would be no more sun. >> now, after

for julia pierson, that time came today. the first female director of the secret service was forced out after one security lapse after another, including one that was revealed yesterday even as she was being grilled by congress. we'll begin tonight with senior white house correspondent bill plante. >> reporter: support for julia pierson's leadership of the secret service was already waning after her appearance before a house committee yesterday. it evaporated with the revelation that agents were unaware that during a visit last month to the c.d.c. in atlanta, a security contractor who had been previously arrested was allowed on an elevator with the president. it wasn't until he took photos of the president that he was questioned and then fired and agents discovered that he was carrying a gun. in a meeting this afternoon with homeland security secretary jay johnson, pierson resigned. white house press secretary joshua earnest. >> we've seen recent and accumulating reports raising questions about the performance of the agency.

julia pierson, director of the secret service has resigned.urable weeks heading an agency that nobody believes stands up to its historic legacy. it came last night with the "washington post" report that an

>>> by mid afternoon, julia pierson delivered her resignation to jay johnson. in an interview, pierson said i think it's the best interest of the secret service and the american public if i stepped down. congress has lost confidence in my ability to run this agency. the media made it clear that this is what they expected. the president's family woke up to this headline this morning in their local paper. man with gun was feet from obama. that was the latest in a series of stunning revelations by "the washington post." this morning's washington post front page was clearly the last straw for the white house. the white house press briefing was delayed three hours today and began immediately after the secret service director submitted her resignation. >> 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. 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 s

julia pierson neglected to tell people any of this stuff. i need to mention the post's writer who owns this story and is responsible for these revelations, and in terms of needing a new director of the secret service, i don't think you need much more than a knife-yielding maniac getting over the fence and into the white house. that's clearly all the president needed. the president just learned just hours it was in the press that he was next to a crazy armed felon guy in an elevator weeks zblag we don't know if he was crazy but he was an armed felon in the elevator with the president. the secret service didn't know about his past and the fact he was armed. that is a big national security concern. >> apparently he was acting, if not crazy, he was giddy just to be next to the president and the secret service didn't discover until later when they pulled him aside and were interviewing him and his boss came in to fire him from the local security detail and said hand me your gun and that's when they learned he was armed. they had been the known un

pierson, julia pierson, the director of course, resigned yesterday, telling bloomberg news, quote, if the secret service of the american public if i step down. congress has lost confidence in my ability to run the agency. the media made it clear this is what they expected. officials say -- officials say -- well, i'll tell you. president obama lost faith after learning he shared an elevator last month at the cdc with an armed man with a criminal record. pierson only told president obama moments before it was reported. >> i can tell you, though, that the white house first learned of that incident yesterday afternoon, shortly before it was reported, before it was publicly reported. >> the agency did foot tell the white house about it. he didn't know about it until yesterday. >> until it was reported publicly, that's correct. we've seen recent and accumulating reports raising questions about the performance the agency. and the president concluded new leadership of that agency was required. >> so what we've gotten from sources close to the white house and the secret service is that there

. >> the group was once given the title "america's favorite party band" by rolling stone, but pierson said beneath the bee-hives, there was a message. >> we felt we were misunderstood and we felt like everyone's just calling us wacky, wacky, wacky and they didn't understand the incredible seriousness of the band. >> the band's cult following continued to grow until a tragedy in the '80s, when lead guitarist, ricky wilson, died of aids. >> we didn't know he had aids until he passed away. so we were told to be silent and that was very very difficult. >> her first break into music was a protest band in the civil rights era. >> so we were the sun donuts and we all wrote and one of the girls wrote about environmental... you know, tomorrow there would be no more sun. >> now, after decades in the bs, kate's going solo with a song "guitars and microphones" - a look back at her life. the video; however, backfired among some in the transgender community who called it stereotypical and degrading. >> i care a lot about gay marriage and equality and i've always been very supportive of trans people

pierson's testimony on capitol hill yesterday did her no favors. she was pummeled by questions from members of congress who questioned her about the fence jumper who managed to make his way across the white house lawn and into the executive mansion and into the east room before finally, thankfully being stopped. we are joined by justice correspondent pamela brown and jim acosta and justice reporter evan perez. mr. acosta, let us start with you. how did this all play out? >> according to white house press secretary josh earnest, earlier this morning the white house had confidence in secret service director julia pierson and things changed during the course of the day. senior democratic lawmakers are starting to break ranks with this white house and saying they did not have confidence in julia pierson and it was at a meeting earlier this afternoon with dhs secretary jay johnson that julia pierson offered her resignation and following that meeting the president called her to thank her for her years of service. you mentioned this latest security incide

later pierson says this. >> no, he said it. he's embarrassed. >> last night katrina pierson denied the phone call and today she said it. after 30 minutes after the story hit this morning, the president responded on twitter. when you give a crazy low-life a break, i guess it did not work out. good work for general kelly for quickly firing that dog. this is the latest series of tweets of manigault-newman. here is what she says of the president criticism. >> it certainly nothing to do with race but with the president calling someone's lack of integrity. the idea that you only point a few things the president has said negative about people that are minorities, the fact that the president's an equal opportunity person that calls things like he sees it. he fights fire with fire and he does not hold back from doing that across the board. >> whatever you think of that answer and take a moment to consider this. the president calling a former high level adviser, an african-american woman a dog may be material enough for a press briefing.

katrina pierson said there are two tapes. we've reached out to cbs for verification was this two separate tapes? we haven't gotten word back. you raise a fair point. gloria, the president does seem to have a penchant for likening people to dogs. i like dogs, but things like choking, getting fired, sweating, a few comparisons he's made to people over the past few years. >> mitt romney choking like a dog. it's his way, a silly way of donald trump asserting his prowess and his dominance. he doesn't like dogs. we know he is a germophobe. but what this is really about is about saying i am stronger than you, and i am better than you, and you choke like a dog and you sweat like a dog, and i'm going to fire that -- i'm going to fire that dog. it's demeaning not only to the person who is saying it, which would be donald trump, but it is demeaning to the office of the presidency and the stature of the presidency because a president really needs to understand that he should not be speaking like this. and i know his supporters will say t

. >> 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

julia pierson, director of the secret service has resigned. it turns out unendurable weeks heading an agency that nobody believes stands up to its historic legacy. it came last night with the "washington post" report that an armed man with a criminal record, an armed man was allowed to ride in the elevator with the president of the united states. that must have been an unchallengeable challenge to miss pierson. a bigger challenge confront as bigger fish. how is the president going to get people to follow him through a dimly lit tunnel. endlessly bad news about a spreading terrorism and a spreading disease. it is now part of a trinity of horrors. ebola which we'll go deeper into the next segment. isis which continues reaching for more territory. a land ruled by the harshest of islamist rule. that's what we're facing with the president. he being out on point. all these crisis have no quick fixes. president obama ran on hope and the new. right now everything new is bad. and this right now is the age of containment and it will require him to come

pierson when she testifies.ne is the security breach, but the other involves that it wasn't properly recorded. and there was bipartisan anger about this, which is rare in washington these days. >> reporter: there is anger. the first reports was that he was stopped right inside the white house. okay. that's bad enough. but now we're hearing -- the "washington post" first reporting, and indicating that he got much further into the white house. so people are wondering is there another shoe to drop? what don't we know yet? i think it doesn't look good that this information is coming out peace meal like that. and that it is worse the more we hear about it. >> this is julia pierson being sworn in to testify. that is the committee chairman and the ranking member greeting her. but now we go back to 2011, and we're finding out that that other breach at the white house was far worse than once thought. >> right. the "washington post" said it took four days to realize someone fired a high powered rifle at the white at the t

police have identified the gunman as 18-year-old karl pierson. we're learning more about where they're looking for clues. today, investigators plan to search the home where he lived. they're also searching his father's home to see if that could give them some ideas into whether this was all planned, how long he had been planning, what his motivation may have been. we spoke with the sheriff that says one of the many things they're focusing in on honing in on is where the gun came from. you may recall he walked into this school behind me, arapahoe high school, with a shotgun. it wasn't even concealed. where did that come from, what hands did it pass. the sheriff hoping to bring more details at a press conference this afternoon. yesterday was a horrifying scene for the students in particular who had to go into lockdown as shots rang out. listen to how it all unfolded. >> school on lockdown, not sure why. there's smoke. the north side of the school. there's a fire in the library. >> chaos and confusion at arapahoe high school. >> i am on the north si

he didn't violate any laws. >> reporter: pierson insisted that the president and his family are safe, but committee members were unrelenting. stephen lynch of massachusetts: >> and i wish to god you-- you protected the white house like you're protecting your reputation here today. >> reporter: and nevada's stephen horsford: >> let be frank-- i believe you have done a disservice to the teesident of the united states. >> reporter: the white house says the president still has full confidence in the security agency. and, scott, despite some veiled hints from members of congress y,day, secret service director julia pierson has not offered to resign. >> pelley: senior white house correspondent bill plante. bill, thanks very much. tonight, there is new urgency in the hunt for a survivalist who is charged with shooting two pennsylvania state troopers, killing one and wounding the other. eric frein has been on the run, presumably in the pocono mountains, for 18 days. vladimir duthiers reports on today's discovery. >> these are very similar devices. >> reporter: the pictures are of two explosiv

pierson has been completely transparent with us. >> is her job on the line? >> 9 director of the secret service said this -- >> this is unacceptable. and i take full responsibility. >> she then went on to defensively make excuses for every terrible display of utter incompetence the secret service has given us in their protection of the white house and the first family. she tried to give defensive speeches instead of answers to very simple questions. >> your agency previously had reported an indictment against mr. gonzalez, asserted that he was arrested in that entry area. isn't it true that he actually penetrated the cross hall, the east room, and, in fact, was arrested in the vicinity of the green room. >> referring to your map on the wall, as i have been briefed, mr. gonzalez entered the front double doors. >> ma'am, i want a short answer. i have very little time. >> that was the day that i agreed with darrell issa. that's not the darrel issa i have seen in other hearings. that was darrel issa being perfectly reasonable today and final bly losing patience w

we, obviously, this morning have been focusing on julia pierson.ing some questions. them us a bit about who she is. >> well, julia pierson is the first ever female to head up the secret service with a lot of different facets to her career, which started in law enforcement in the 1980s three years later, she was in the secret service as a special agent, herself, with the miami office. she went on to serve as a four-year student with the presidential protective division. that position does not require senate confirmation. pierson held several different titles throughout her 30-year career and comparing to the last, to her predecessor, it's similar. you know the bicker question i guess you can ask, she was brought in to clean up the frat boy culture. but it looks like everybody who leaves has actually been brought up in that culture. and you wonder about the choice for a lot of reasons, but let's get to the news in terms of what has happened and what we have learned since the case of the white house jumper broke and the hearings began, this then we di

secret service director julia pierson has resigned in the wake of security lapses at the white house. fox's own ed henry is standing by in the briefing room with the very latest tonight. ed. >> reporter: sean, a really dramatic turn of events because as of this morning josh earnest, the press secretary, was doing various television interviews saying the president still had full confidence in julia pierson. what changed in those few hour sns a number of things. one, white house officials say they only learned late yesterday about this second breach in recent days. but this elevator incident where a security guard with a gun who had a criminal record got very close to the president. and it turned out julia pierson while briefing the president recently about the fence jumping incident that really started all this did not disclose what had happened in atlanta. that was a problem. but i've pressed josh earnest on why it took a resignation from the director. why didn't the white house push to get her out if they were so troubled by this? listen. why didn't senior people here at the white ho

students say murphy had taken disciplinary action against pierson after the student threatened him. joe redmond was pierson's friend. >> it began with the speech he wrote and it escalated from there and karl took himself so seriously he thought that when we said no to that speech we were saying no to him. >> reporter: a sheriff's deputy assigned to arapaho and a guard were in the school at the time but pierson shot himself in the library before they could reach him. pierson's family released this statement today. >> reporter: scott, in another >> reporter: scott, in another statement, the family of claire davis said she remains in a coma in critical but stable condition. >> pelley: rick salinger, thank you very much, rick. today the f.b.i. said that this year its agents prevented 150 attacks like the one in colorado. the bureau is working with communities to spot potential threats early and our homeland security correspondent bob orr gotten an inside look at how it works. >> reporter: andre simmons runs an f.b.i. unit charged with stopping mass shootings before they happen. three ti

under now former director julia pierson staffing shortages have grown so severe that the agency had to fly in field agents from across the country for two-week temporary details paying their travel, hotel and per diem costs. pierson also rejected an internal recommendation for boosted security around the perimeter of the white house and she regularly accommodated the white house staff wishes for lower security levels over the warnings of her own tactical teams. at one point ahead of the presidential summit with african leaders, the secret service chief reportedly told staff we need to be more like disney world. we need to be more friendly, inviting. today the white house announced a retired secret service agent joseph clancy will officially begin as interim director on monday. he will serve as corporate director of comcast which is the parent company of nbc universal since 2011. is it a new day? don't hold your breath. according to one longtime agent, chancy is one of the most genteel guys, but he doesn't like conflict. they need to clean house, he is not the guy to do it. joining me n

director pierson, i had thought about all of this long and hard, and i think my major concern goes to the culture. it is very disturbing to know that secret service agents in the most elite protective agency in the world feel more comfortable apparently from what i'm hearing, coming to members of this committee and telling things, than coming to you and members in the agency. that -- that, i'm telling you, when i boil all of this down, that to me is dangerous. it goes -- it has to go against morale. i don't even see how good decisions can be made if your people don't feel a level of comfort that -- or they feel fear that they are going to be able to talk about the things that concern them. and that's -- i just want to go through some questions, and i want .you to -- i want to give you a chance to address that, because to me -- when all of the dust settles, that's a problem. so going back to this november 11th, 2011, incident -- and i know you were not the director, i understand that. a lot of people talk about the culture problem with the secret service, and the press reports -- of al

secret service director julia pierson has resigned following a big hearing regarding the man who jumped the fence and made it well into the white house before being stopped. her replacement will be joseph clancy. this news follows yesterday's heated hearing on capital hill. moments ago the white house press secretary addressed the issue. >> she spent several hours in front of the cameras yesterday answering difficult questions from members of congress. in the context of that interaction she took responsibility for the short comings of the agency she led and she took responsibility for fixing them and that quite simply, i think, is a testament to her professionalism and character. >> president obama called her to suppress his appreciation for her time served in the agency. i want to talk now with congressman cummings. is this the move that had to be made? >> it absolutely had to be made because a culture has developed in the secret service whereby secret service agents feel more comfortable coming before a member of congress and talking about the problems in the secret service and reveal

>> so you were not satisfied with what the director, julia pierson, had to say today, were you? >> well, i wasn't satisfied because we continue to ask questions and she was saying that it was a budget concern, it was another type of concern. and yet when we asked piercing questions, what we found was that indeed it is probable that she made some of the very decisions to reduce staffing that created this potential concern. and so why were the dogs not released? a lot of still unanswered questions that i think americans deserve. >> so where do you go from here? what can congress do to try to fix this problem? >> well, it is a bipartisan thing. you heard democrats and republicans today very concerned that what we've got is an agency with a culture that must be turned around. the current director has been there for 17 months and yet we can still see that even among some of those that showed up at the hearing today that they acknowledge that they've got a problem. so we need to give our secret service the tools necessary. hearings are not enough. we're probably about to go into an ex

. >> director pierson should resign today. yords why she has not resigned as a matter of honor and duty and service to their country. she has got to go. >> do you think she should go? >> i think so. >> look at why julia pierson blamed the media. the press pushing back hard against the president, appearing to shift the blame for underestimating isis in his intelligence agencies, but the media also fall short in covering these dire warnings? the nonstop coverage of the ebola virus dominating the news. >>> hat hour, health officials casting a wide net in an effort to track down everyone that was exposed to ebola here in the united states. >> we here are talking about ebola the last few days. do we need to? >> are we reaching the point where the mainstream media are scaring people? >>> plus when the miami harold exposed a fling with diana rice? a new look at that bit of monkey business. i'm howard kurts, and this is media buzz. >>> begin with a series of washington post scoop. the service botched the probe of the white house being

julie pierson might still be running the secret service if not for media. details the white house didn't know. a fence jumper with a knife made it all the way to the east room after he overpowered an agent. the post also disclosed the botching of a probe when seven bullets struck the white house back in 2011 and "the washington examiner" revealed the service had allowed an armed felon to share an elevator ride with president obama two weeks ago. pierson's weak and defensive performance during a house hearing produced a media drum beat for her ouster. >> i didn't hear a complete endorsement of julia pierson. >> it's just a matter of time now before that person will be replaced. >> director pierson should resign today. >> the white house briefly struggled yesterday to defend her. >> so are you telling me this morning that the president of the united states and the first lady have confidence in julie pierson to run an agency that is supposed to protect two daughters. >> yes, joe, they have confidence in them. >> hours later pierson resigned telling bloomberg n

julia pierson, 30-year veteran, will be replaced at least in the interim by a veteran agent known to all in the organization as clancy, joseph clancy, formerly in charge of presidential protection often seen at the president's side, he retired in 2011, but he's been called back into service. nbc's kristen welker has our report. >> reporter: it's a much more visibly secure white house than it was 12 days ago. more guards, a locked front door and now a change at the top of the secret service. >> the president and secretary concluded that new leadership was required. >> reporter: director julia pierson resigned after her support eroded after the wake of this unprecedented security breach and her rocky hearing on capitol hill yesterday. >> ma'am, i want a short answer. i have very little time. >> reporter: the breaking point for many lawmakers? the revelation that secret service agents permitted president obama to ride in an elevator with an armed security contractor with a criminal history during a recent trip to atlanta. a detail she never disclosed during her more than three hours of