Obama picks new Secret Service chief

President Obama named Joseph Clancy, who has been heading the Secret Service on an interim basis, as the embattled agency’s permanent director on Wednesday.

“Over the course of the last several months, Director Clancy has demonstrated the kind of leadership that frankly many of us expected him to demonstrate,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said of the appointment.

{mosads}Clancy is a veteran of the Secret Service who once led Obama’s own security detail.

By choosing Clancy over other candidates, including former FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce, though, Obama is rebuffing congressional pressure to bring in an outsider to lead the agency.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) called the decision “disappointing,” though he praised Clancy for having made himself available to the committee as they scrutinized the agency.

“The good men and women of the Secret Service are screaming for a fresh start,” he said. “At this moment in time, the Secret Service would best be served by a transformative and dynamic leader from outside the agency.”

A panel convened by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in December that the agency would be best served by having an outside director.

Johnson on Wednesday defended Clancy’s selection.

“The President and I considered several strong candidates for the position, including those who had never been with the Secret Service,” Johnson said. 

“Ultimately, Joe Clancy struck the right balance of familiarity with the Secret Service and its missions, respect from within the workforce, and a demonstrated determination to make hard choices and foster needed change.”

On Wednesday, White House officials also pushed back against the idea that Clancy’s long tenure inside the organization would make it hard for him to reform the agency effectively.

“Mr. Clancy over the last several months has demonstrated that he was able to conduct a candid, clear-eyed assessment of the shortcomings of that agency and to look at needed reforms and implement them, and that precisely is why he has been promoted to this permanent role,” Earnest said.

“I can tell you that it was not at all a forgone conclusion that when Mr. Clancy was given the acting position that he would necessarily be asked to stay on as the permanent director,” Earnest added.

Clancy took over as interim director last October after a series of embarrassing security lapses and questions about the leadership of Julia Pierson, the director at the time.

In September, a man with a knife managed to jump over the White House fence and enter the building. Another man jumped the fence the next month, but was arrested before he reached the building.

The incident drew intense congressional scrutiny to the agency, with Chaffetz taking the lead on investigating the once-venerated organization.

Pierson resigned amid later revelations about other security failings and low morale at the agency.

In an effort to shake up the agency’s leadership, Clancy asked four top Secret Service officials to leave their posts last month.

This story was last updated at 4:03 p.m.