Add this to the lengthy, and still growing, list of flubs the Secret Service reportedly made while guarding the President: the agency allowed a man posing as a member of Congress to go backstage with Obama at an event last month.
Bloomberg reported that the unidentified man accessed the backstage area during or right after Obama’s speech at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation awards dinner on Sept. 27, citing an anonymous White House official.
The man, who said he was Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-NJ), left the area without incident once a member of the White House staff determined that he was not in fact Payne, according to the official. The official couldn’t tell Bloomberg how close the man got to the President and the First Lady, who was also in attendance.
Agency spokesman Brian Leary told Bloomberg that the agency did its job in this case.
“This guy went through security, fully screened,” he said.
