Bill Clinton ‘surprised’ by White House security breach

Former President Clinton on Tuesday said he was “surprised” that a man carrying a knife made it through the doors of the White House without being stopped by Secret Service.

“I’m surprised he got to walk into the White House. I wasn’t surprised he jumped the fence. We had a guy jump the fence when I was there,” Clinton told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos during an interview on the sidelines of the 2014 Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York City.

“Those things are gonna happen. But I was quite surprised that he got in. I still don’t know how that happened.”

Just minutes after President Obama and his daughters departed the White House Friday, Omar Gonzalez, 42, jumped over the executive mansion’s fence and sprinted across the lawn into the building, before he was stopped and arrested by Secret Service. 

The incident heightened White House security measures and triggered a comprehensive review by the Secret Service.

Clinton, who lived in the White House for eight years, described a time in his presidency, when a man stole a plane and crashed it on the south lawn.

“He bounced a couple times, flipped over the single-engine plane, went above the shrubs and below the magnolia tree and crashed that plane into the base of the White House which is huge, that stone base and killed himself,” Clinton said. “I think he would’ve been shot down by the snipers on the White House roof except Hillary and Chelsea and I were across the street staying in Blair House ’cause they were rehabbin’ the White House.”