Guarding the President of the United States is serious business no matter who occupies the White House, but the vitriol directed at President Obama is unprecedented. The Secret Service is the only thing separating Obama from a disaffected voter or mentally disturbed person who would do him harm, but those in President Obama’s detail seem more focused on partying than adhering to their job responsibilities.
Three Secret Service agents on Pres. Obama’s detail who were charged with protecting Obama in Amsterdam this week were sent back to the U.S. and put on administrative leave Sunday after getting wasted, reports The Washington Post.
Members of the hotel staff contacted the U.S. Embassy after they found one Secret Service agent drunk and passed out in the hallway. The embassy contacted managers at the Secret Service to notify them about the behavior of their agents.
The three agents, who are members of the Counter Assault Team, allegedly got intoxicated at the Huis Ter Duin Hotel.
New rules ban Secret Service agents from drinking for the ten hours prior to an official assignment. The rules were put in place in 2012 after agents got drunk and brought prost¡tutes back to their rooms prior to the president’s economic summit.
The three agents should have began their duty on Sunday, when they were briefed on Obama’s trip, so drinking on that day would have v¡olated the new rules enacted after the 2012 incident.
President Obama arrived in the Netherlands on Monday for the first leg of a week long trip that will take him through Europe and to Saudi Arabia.
