Secret Service Director Julia Pierson took a beating from nearly 20 House Oversight and Government Reform Committee lawmakers who traveled back to Washington for Tuesday's rare, three-and-a-half hour recess hearing. Droves of photographers packed into the panel's Rayburn meeting room to capture Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., demanding succinct responses from Pierson about botched security and the Sept. 19 incident in which Iraq war veteran Omar J. Gonzalez jumped the White House fence and made it into the building. "Ma'am, I want a short answer," Issa challenged during the first round of questioning for the embattled director. "I have very little time. Was he in fact — the federal complaint said he was — he was in fact apprehended in one place. Isn't it true he was apprehended further into the White House?" (more…)
