Straw poll and got out pretty early on in the race. It is a big fundraising opportunity and the chairman talked about the importance of having it. It was interesting to hear him say that is not necessarily the direction its not necessarily going to give us direction as to who will come out on top. Steven finally, to both of you if you look at february, iowa, new hampshire, nevada, it is conceivable that you have four different winners in each of those states. Caitlin i think there are a few different lanes that these candidates are competing for. I think to your point about how long this will go on for, i think it will go on for a while as they are competing for several lanes within the party here. Kenneth it also raises questions on the super pac and. It will be a long race and he will need resources to last several months. Steven ken thomas of Associated Press and Caitlin Hueyburns of real clear politics. Figure for joining us. We appreciate it. Tonight on q a eric larson and his new book, dead weight. Mr. Larson the question gets complicated when the question arises what ultimately happened to the lusitania . Why was the lusitania allowed to enter the irish sea without any detailed warning that could have been provided to the captain that was not. This has led to some very interesting speculation about was that ship essentially set up for an attack by churchill for someone or someone in the admiral. Its interesting. I found no smoking memo. I would have found the smoking memo if it existed. There is nothing from churchill to Jackie Fisher or someone else saying, lets let the lusitania go into the irish sea. Nothing like that exist. Tonight at 8 00 eastern and pacific. Former chair ben bernanke speaks tomorrow. He will discuss the u. S. Economy and efforts to achieve full employment in the labor market. That is tomorrow at 930 a. M. Eastern on cspan two. Later that morning, a conversation with transportation secretary and epa administrator. They sit down with politicos mike allen. That is live tomorrow on cspan 2 beginning at 11 45 a. M. Eastern. Next, secret Service DirectorJoseph Clancy testified before the House Oversight committee about the agencys current operations. He was asked specifically about an event earlier this month at the white house that involved two secret Service Agents, allegedly jiving into a barricade while drunk. Director clancy has been in charge of the secret Service Since october, after the former head resigned. Theres hearing is three and a half hours. Rep. Chaffertz the committee on oversight and government reforma will come to order. Without objection the chair authorizes to declare recess at any time. Appreciate everybody being here. Reforming the United States secret service is not a partisan issue. Ranking member cummings and i have presented a united front on this issue and i look forward to continuing this important work with him on both sides of the aisle. The most Important Mission for the secret service is protecting the president and his family however a litany of recent mishaps raise major concerns. In 2011 nobody recognized shots were fired at the white house until bullets were discovered by maintenance staff. It has been well publicized the secret Service Agents engaged in misconduct and cartagena amsterdam and miami. , in september last year a security contractor with an arrest record, wrote in an elevator with the president , armed with a gun completely and announced to the president s detail. Now, on march 4, the second in command of the president s detail, drove his car through a crime scene involving a bomb threat when the president was in the white house. This has to stop. The secret service has a zero failed mission to protect the president and his family. This is especially true for the president s protective detail, or what is often referred to as the ppd. We need to understand why these incidents keep happening. This committee requested the special agent in charge of the ppd, robert buster, i tend closeddoor Briefing Regarding the incident. Director clancy said no. The committee requested the supervisors on duty before and during the incident in march to testify today but director clancy said no. We asked director clancy to turn over video footage of the incident and again the director said no. In a closeddoor briefing last week director clancy was unable to adequately answer questions about the events of march 4. Instead he asserted by referring the matter to the Inspector General he was unable to ask any questions of his own but congress is also doing an investigation. To not do an investigation would be malpractice on our part. Congress has a role. We have a duty, we have our responsibility to conduct our own investigation. By refusing to allow the witnesses we invited to testify with firsthand knowledge of the incident director clancy is , keeping congress and the American People in the dark. On top of that the secret , service has missed every deadline to verify this committee with information with no legitimate explanation as to why. It is unclear why director clancy is choosing at the start of his tenure to be so unhelpful to congress. I was hopeful director clancy would assist congress in understanding how we can restrict agency to its prior stature. This does not appear to be the case. The march 4 incident is concerning on three major points. Number one the interference of crime scenes, seen by secret Service Personnel. Number two allegations involving decisions, communications and dispositions of Senior Secret Service personnel and number three the agencys apparent botched response to a bomb threat while the president was in the white house. Although the secret service has refused to provide video footage of the incident the metropolitan d. C. Police department has. Initially, i indicated that i was frustrated about the lack of response by the metropolitan Police Department based on , information given to us by the secret service. I was critical of the chief and suggested chief lanier was going to get a nastygram from congress, which we sent. I can tell you i have nothing for praise and thankfulness for her in her department and agency for swiftly and completely responding to congresss request. We appreciate her, the men and women who work at the metropolitan Police Department and their Swift Response to our , request. It certainly stands in great contrast to what we have seen from the secret service. Now we are going to show part of , a video that was provided to us by the metropolitan police Police Department but a few things before you see this. On at 10 24 p. M. A woman drove march 4, her vehicle to a security gate outside the white house fence line on 15th street and left a package she claimed to be a bomb. Secret Service Agents and officers at the scene confronted the suspect but were unable to apprehend her. The package sat unattended as traffic drove by for a long period of time. It took 11 minutes for the secret service to call the metropolitan Police Department bomb squad. For 17 minutes traffic intended continued through the intersection of several pedestrians walk within feet of the potential bomb. I dont understand how that happens. When the secret service finally did call they fail to mention to the metro Police Department that it was an actual bomb threat rather than just a suspicious , package and its been explained to us theres a difference. Theres a difference in the Response Time and the approach that they take. You can understand how around the perimeter of the White White House there are oftentimes items that are left unattended but its a wholly different situation when somebody comes up and places at the perimeter of the white house a package that they claim to be an actual bomb. Let me show this video and i will try the best i can, we have we will put this up on our Youtube Channel to try to describe whats happening. Its roughly 10 20 p. M. At night, there is a car, it pulls up. You can start to see the person who is dropped off and then you will see an officer come out and try to apprehend the person but he has already been charged now with a variety of different crimes. The potential bomb sits next to that building right there and again we are doing timelapse video. You can see cars have been driving by and whatnot. Then we are assuming in here and zooming in here and you can , see the agents that were in question about what they were doing, this is a full 30 minutes after the initial wouldbe bomb was placed there. You can see there are some big cones and big barrels that are put out. Again, we have a crime scenes at this point. The assault on the officer and , then you have within just a couple of feet, you can see theyre bumping into that barricade there. That is not much of a barricade in my personal opinion but driving right within a couple of feet of this wouldbe bomb which begs a lot of additional questions. It takes the secret service and the metropolitan Police Department about an hour and 20 minutes to finally come to the conclusion that this is not a bomb and the scene is then rendered safe. An officer followed the suspect in her car. We get to another part of the story which begs a lot of questions. He drives up, drops off a wouldbe bomb and then the secret service gets an officer behind this person that they were mistakenly called off the pursuit when the secret service identified the wrong car at the suspects. Right behind, i can only imagine this officer saying, i have this person in my set, but instead of pulling this person over, instead of may be going that extra step to check, it is waived off. They pursue another car which is not actively the suspect. 30 minutes 30 minutes after the woman fled the scene, the secret service finally issued a bolo, a be on the lookout for a vehicle to local Law Enforcement. Metropolitan Police Department didnt know for 30 minutes what vehicle they were to be looking for 30 minutes. The suspect was finally arrested three days later n 90 miles away, by a jeff Different Police agency on an unrelated charge. The day before she was arrested she was interviewed by the secret Service Agent at the secret service claimed they were unable to arrest her and instead canceled the lookout for the women. Back at the white house on march 4, two senior secret Service Agents including Marc Connolly the president s second in command of protective details disrupted the crime scene. These agents placed themselves on their colleagues in the president and family and potential danger by driving their government vehicle through a barricade within feet of a potential bomb. I just a good Service Policy, video footage of the incident should have been retained, however, most of the footage evidently, according to the secret service has mysteriously gone missing. I find this highly suspicious. In a briefing last week, director clancy and deputy secretary marcus played the tape of the incidents that showed the same incident from different angles. Just a few seconds of an incident that lasted more than an hour and 20 minutes. There were eight minutes members there. Three Committee Chairman several Ranking Members, for democrats, four republicans. The limited image showed the Police Moving the barricade aside from the car. I want to set aside for a second they concerned that the secret service is only maintaining video footage for one of the most important buildings and our country for 72 hours. That makes no sense on any level to me. Because there are issues related to National Security the , prosecution of the actual event and the basic ability to , learn from past instances as we are having to deal with now. Based on the secret Service Policy video footage of this , incident should never the less been retained. We had to crime scenes that should have immediately been highlighted. Yet an Agency Spokesperson told cnn quote in the event of an Operational Security incident the white house complex specific video footage is maintained for investigative and protective intelligence purposes. That would seem to make sense but that is not what has , happened here. Yet director clancy and deputy , secretary mayorkas only show to very limited views of the incident. Does a potential bomb at the white house not qualified as an Operational Security incident end quote. If the potential bomb doesnt qualify them what does . These tapes shouldve been retained in this committee intends to find out why they were not. We were only shown seconds of a video for an incident that lasted for more than an hour. Director clancy, today we expect , answers and we expect you to know them. We are nearly three weeks after the incident. To help you prepare for the hearing today my staff reached out to your Congressional Affairs office to let you know what subjects we would be covering today. The staff was fully briefed on what we expect you to know and i want to let you know that the i i dont know strategy is not going to sit well with our committee. We look forward to you answering the questions and providing clarity on what happened march 4 and we do appreciate you being here. I can tell you that you have been personally very accessible and i greatly personally very much appreciate that. So, with that, let me now recognize Ranking Member mr. Cummings. Rep cummings thank you very much, mr. Chairman and i thank , you for calling this hearing today. Director clancy, welcome again and let me start off by saying director that there are moments in life that are and should be transformative moments. In other words there are moments , in all of our lives where something happens and it may very well be negative than it usually is and then we have to pause for a moment and learn from it and correct it. If we do not correct it at that moment, in my 64 years on earth i have discovered that it usually gets worse. I am here to tell you that we are at such a moment. The sad part about it is that these moments seem to keep coming. Usually in life its one moment or two that but they seem to just keep coming and coming and ill tell you i have great concerns and i am glad this is about a partisan effort because bipartisan effort, because this is bigger than us. This is bigger than the secret service. This is about the security of the most powerful person in the world. I know this will not get down to a partisan battle. It will not get down to a gotcha but this is about us trying to , do our job. Your job and the great men and women of the secret services job is to guard the president s family, our former president and other protectees. Our job is to make sure you do your job and make sure that you and the agents are accountable. Now i must tell you that i was , disappointed to find out that we will not hear from the other secret service witnesses the committee invited to testify here today. Director clancy i have the , greatest respect for you and your service to our country. Your job is crucial. Your reputation is exceptional and sound. Your desired to object to your protect your agents and officers against unwarranted intrusion is admirable but as i have said to you before if we are going to air, let us err on the side of the safety and security of the president of the United States of america. So we wanted to speak with these witnesses for a very simple reason. According to your own testimony you did not know about this incident until five days after it happened. You yourself have said that is unacceptable. Again, as i said, we have those transformative moments and that is one symptom of the problem saying that we need to do some transforming. Your predecessor in my , conversations with her, one of the things that she said was that quite often she did not get information, she did not get complete information. She got inaccurate information and in some instances got no , information. Something is wrong with that picture and it is wrong with that one and obviously theres something wrong here. With all due respect i have to , say how disappointed i was with your initial letter on friday. Eight simply announced it simply announced that you would be the only witness today without providing any reason for other witnesses not testifying. No other committee is doing more on this issue than ours. We are trying to conduct their work in a responsible i partisan bipartisan manner. We really have no room for error and if were going to err, we will err on the side of the safety of the president. When we receive and response think is no explanation at all, it is difficult to view that response as respectful which i know is not your intent. I understand that. For these reasons i was heartened to receive your letter yesterday in which he outlined your specific concerns with the public testimony of agencies charged with protecting the president. I also appreciate your offer to work with this committee to examine other ways to provide us with the information we need to fulfill our constitutional oversight responsibilities. Of course we all understand , there is an ongoing Inspector General investigation of this incident. We respect that. The ig has informed us that he will be moving quickly and should be able to answer key questions in weeks, not months. We recognize