Secret Service: Racism Blamed For Failure To Protect The President

The Secret Service is doing a poor job of protecting President Barack Obama and the White House due to racism, according to Representative Elijah Cummings analysis of what black Americans are thinking. The Maryland Democrat is the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. During a Face the Nation segment on Sunday, Elijah Cummings said 85 percent of black voters think that the Secret Service would be doing a better job of protecting President Obama if he was white.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned last week not long after President Obama uttered his confidence in the woman he chose to lead the agency. Pierson was also grilled by Congress regarding the Secret Service failures not long before she opted to leave the agency.

Prior to Julia Pierson’s resignation, the Secret Service permitted an armed security contractor with a felony conviction on his record to ride in an elevator with President Obama. In a separate incident, a man with a knife jumped the White House fence and made his way into the East Room of the White House.

Representative Cummings said that while he did not personally believe racism is to blame for the Secret Service failures, the idea is being discussed in the black community.

“The president’s people have told me that he feels very comfortable. He feels good about the Secret Service and most importantly the First Lady feels good about it,” Cummings said.

The Representative added, “We have information that this [Secret Service problems] goes all the way back to the Bush administration, a lot of the problems that we’re talking about now. It’s just that they’re coming to light.”

Representative Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri who is also black, reinforced Representative Cummings’ claims that Secret Service racism is a concern for the black community.

“It is something that is widespread in black circles. I’ve been hearing this for some time: ‘Well, the Secret Service, they’re trying to expose the president.’ You hear a lot of that from African-Americans in particular,” Cleaver said during an interview with the New York Times.

“The Secret Service is committed to protecting the first family and the president at all costs. We recognize that protecting the president is a sacred trust we have with the American public and that they place in us. It’s never mattered to the service who the president is because we recognize the trust,” Secret Service representative Ed Donovan said.

Both Cummings and Cleaver said they are attempting to dispel the notion that the Secret Service is influenced by racism when talking to constituents. However, both men reportedly feel that the accusations reflect an ongoing racial divide in the United States.

Do you think race is a factor in the Secret Service failures?

[Image via: DC Clothesline]