Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, testifying today about the state dinner security breach, refuted stories that President Obama has received more threats than previous presidents.
“The threats are not up,” Sullivan said, adding that they receive about the same amount of threats against Obama as they did for presidents Clinton and Bush.
There have been a few reports this year claiming that threats are up drastically, which the Secret Service has disputed. Ronald Kessler, published a book this year claiming threats were up by 400 percent. The Boston Globe, in a story on a Congressional Research Service report, said Obama was receiving an “unprecedented” number of threats, stretching the Secret Service’s resources.
At the time of the latter report, Secret Service Ed Donovan said that although Obama received a large number of threats during his campaign and directly before and after his inauguration, the number of threats was comparable to the past two presidents.
In today’s hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, Sullivan also said he doesn’t believe the state dinner party crashers posed a threat to the President’s safety.
Correction: This post originally incorrectly identified Kessler as a former Secret Service agent. His career has been spent as a journalist.
