New Secret Service Security Lapse Uncovered

The Washington Post is reporting an armed security contractor with a criminal record was allowed to ride in an elevator with President Obama, violating Secret Service protocol, during the president's visit to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta last month.

As Carol Leonnig writes for the Post:

"Extensive screening is supposed to keep people with weapons or criminal histories out of arm’s reach of the president. But it appears that this man, possessing a gun, came within inches of the president after undergoing no such screening."

Sources tell the Post that the president was not informed about the lapse.

This revelation comes as the director of the Secret Service, Julia Pierson, is facing intense scrutiny for another security lapse last month, in which an armed intruder  scaled the White House fence and entered well into the residence before being subdued.

Secret Service initially said the intruder was not armed and misrepresented how far the intruder had entered into the residence.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said that whistleblowers told his committee the intruder had entered much farther than the Secret Service said.

Pierson faced a Congressional panel yesterday.

Michael Shear, the New York Times' White House correspondent, joins Here & Now's Robin Young with the latest on the Secret Service's security lapses.

Michael Shear, New York Times' White House correspondent. He tweets @shearm.