King: WH intruder ‘absolutely inexcusable’

Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said it was “absolutely inexcusable” that an intruder carrying a knife was able to hop a fence and sprint into the White House’s front doors.

{mosads}”This is absolutely inexcusable,” said King, the former Homeland Security Committee chairman who still sits on both that panel and the Intelligence Committee.

On Friday evening, Omar J. Gonzalez jumped the fence and raced across the lawn, before he was intercepted by Secret Service just inside the residence. President Obama and his daughters had just left the White House minutes earlier.

“The fact that he wasn’t brought down because they say they didn’t think he had a weapon? He could have had a body bomb; he could have had a vest on,” King said on “Fox News Sunday.” “As we know, he had a knife, so this demands a full investigation as to what happened, why it happened, and what’s being done to make sure it never happens again.”

King added that he expected Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) to hold a hearing on why the security breach happened on the Secret Service’s watch.

King said he was especially troubled given the current threat from militant group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“There can be a lot of conspiracies against the president, very complex assassination plots,” King said. “This is the most basic, the most simple type of procedure and how — especially in these days of ISIS and the concern about terror acts — someone could actually get into the White House, without being stopped, is inexcusable.”