Secret Service Gaffe Leads To Armed Man In Elevator With Obama Being Fired

Remember when the Secret Service allowed an armed security guard on the same elevator with President Obama when he visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)? It turns out the man was not a felon — as initial reports indicated — and was fired following questioning by the agency.

Kenneth Tate still does not know exactly why he lost a job he loved at the CDC, after what was to be one of the highlights of his life. When Obama visited the headquarters as the Ebola crisis was starting to make headlines in the U.S. and the Secret Service was facing increased criticisms over their lack of direction, the 47-year-old was selected to operate the elevator the President would ride on during his visit.

As a black man born in Chicago, Tate admired the President and looked forward to having the opportunity to serve him, if only in a small way that day. However, it all turned into a nightmare from which he has not awaken.

When the President exited the elevator and started walking towards “The Beast” — as his limo is dubbed by the Secret Service — Tate took out his cell phone and snapped a photo of the historic moment. However, agents took him to task and when his bosses at the CDC heard the news, they were not pleased.

After several weeks of investigation it was revealed that Tate was carrying a firearm, while in the same elevator with Obama, which had been issued in the line of his duty as a security guard. This is a complete violation of Secret Service protocol, but was it Tate’s fault or that of agents who failed to do a thorough check before the President ever got on that fateful elevator?

What’s worse, the lapse in security procedures involving the leader of the free world was never reported to the White House by Julia Pierson, former Secret Service head, who has since resigned following a Congressional investigation into several lapses.

“This was unjust and has been a nightmare,” Tate said, according to the New York Times. “I’ve tried to rationalize it. It won’t go away.”

The reports that Tate was a felon were incorrect. The former security guard has been arrested on several occasions — including robbery and assault — however, he was never convicted and media reports made it sound as if he had entered the elevator without authorization.

“From the reports, I was some stranger that entered the elevator,” he said at the office of his lawyer, Christopher Chestnut. “I mean, I was appointed.”

Even though the Secret Service and CDC have not issued an official account of events, a unidentified Secret Service official says Tate’s account is consistent with the investigation. However, William R. Banks, the president of Professional Security Corporation, the private security firm which employed Tate that day, said in an email that the man’s description of the day’s events “are not correct,” but gave no explanation as to what was wrong.

For Tate, that day began as any other. He was issued his.40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and two magazine clips, which he holstered on his belt under his suit jacket. When Obama got into the elevator he was polite and said a few words to the former security guard.

“He acknowledged me, said, ‘How you are doing?’ He said, ‘What’s your name?’ I told him my name, and he extended his hand, shook my hand, and I said it’s a pleasure to meet him. And I proceeded to escort him upstairs.”

“I was just proud,” Tate said and remembers a Secret Service agent told him it was remarkable that the President had acknowledged him as it hadn’t happened for him for two-years. “That was a big accomplishment to me.”

After his briefing, Obama rode on the same elevator and Tate took him downstairs to the waiting limousine. As the President got in the vehicle, he snapped the photo on his cell, but a Secret Service agent waved for him to get back and he went inside the building thinking nothing of it.

Later on, his angry bosses pulled him aside and took him to a conference room where he was questioned by Secret Service agents.

“I was upset. I’m nervous because I’m like, I don’t understand what’s going on,” said Tate, who added that his photos were similar to those taken by news agencies and after agents ordered him to delete the images, he did as asked.

Following the meeting, his employers at the CDC took away his badge and the he received a letter of termination the next week. Tate says he still has not been given an explanation as to why he was fired and to top it all, his 27-year-old son — who also worked at the CDC for seven-years — was also dismissed because of “downsizing.”

“It was something to tell my mom — if I meet him everything will be complete,” the unemployed man said. “I didn’t know it was going to be my job.”

Do you think the armed security guard was unjustly fired because the Secret Service failed in their duties?

[Image via NYT/Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com]