CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript

Interview

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BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Dean Reynolds who has seen a tornado or two. Thank you very much, Dean.

And we turn now to the other big story overnight. The Secret Service announced late yesterday that eleven of their agents who had been sent to Colombia in advance of the President's visit were recalled and placed on administrative leave after reports of a wild party that involved prostitutes. Our White House correspondent Norah O'Donnell is with us here this morning, along with Darrell Issa, who is chairman of the house oversight committee. Norah, I know you were talking to officials earlier this morning, what's the latest on this?

NORAH O'DONNELL (CBS News Chief White House Correspondent): Well, the White House says that the President's security was never endangered because of this. But the number one job of the Secret Service is to protect the President when he's in a foreign country and when he's in the United States and less than forty-eight hours before the President arrived in Cartagena, there was reports of wild drinking and prostitutes. The Secret Service acted very quickly. They recalled at least eleven agents. Also five members of the military may have been invol-- involved. They are also being disciplined. The issue here, according to officials that I spoke with, is concerns that there-- one, this is, you know, bad conduct, certainly immoral conduct, but also concerns about potential blackmail or espionage. If a woman can get in a secure zone that is supposed to be protected by the Secret Service and others, what does it say about security? So that's one of the big concerns.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Congressman Issa, you head up the house oversight committee, the kind of the basic investigative arm of-- of-- of the House. What can you add to this? What have you found out?

REPRESENTATIVE DARRELL ISSA (R-California/Chairman, Oversight & Government Reform Committee): Well, first of all, we think the number might be higher, and we're-- we're asking for the exact amount of all the people who, quote, "were involved." But this kind of a breach is a breach in the federal workforce's most elite protective unit, and they don't just protect the President, of course, they protect the cabinet members, the vice president, first families, candidates. So when you look at this, you realize if you can have this kind of breakdown, one that could lead to blackmail, as Norah said and so on, then we have got to ask where are the systems in place to prevent this in the future? The reason that the investigation will not be about the eleven to twenty or more involved, it will be about how did this happen and how often has this happened before? Things like this don't happen once if they didn't happen before.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, are-- are you-- when exactly did this happen? Do we know?

NORAH O'DONNELL: We do. It's about-- was about Wednesday evening when there was a report. Anyone who comes into the secure area, this hotel where many people are staying, they have to sign in their guests. This agent allegedly signed in a guest. Those guests are supposed to leave by 7 AM in the morning. When that guest had not left--this prostitute--the hotel then went, knocked on the door and there was an altercation about whether she had been paid for her services. So that's part of the altercation that went on and then the embassy was alerted and they found there were other guests that had been signed in.

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Mister Chairman, you-- what we're hearing is at no time was the President in danger. Are you satisfied that that's the case?

REPRESENTATIVE DARRELL ISSA: No, no, I can't be. In this particular case, the President may not have been in danger, but that's-- that's to beg the whole question of what happens if somebody six months ago, six years ago, became the-- the victim of their own misconduct and is now being blackmailed? What happens when a force that historically we've heard about these wheel-up parties when the President leaves. Well, this was a pre-wheel-down. So, the question is, is the whole organization in need of some soul-searching, some changes, or in fact-- before the President, the vice president, members of the cabinet are in danger?

NORAH O'DONNELL: But, Bob, there are no reports that this involved the presidential protection division, the agents, very elite agents that protect the President or the body men that you see around the President. I think it's also worth noting that they worked on this very quickly, according to the Secret Service, they removed these eleven agents quickly, and they were immediately replaced.

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Are-- are you-- have you decided yet whether this will require hearings?

REPRESENTATIVE DARRELL ISSA: Well, whether it requires hearings hasn't been decided, but we will participate in an over-the-shoulder investigation and some questions about how-- because the management team at the Secret Service is very stable, very nonpolitical. So the question is how are they going to make these changes in discipline and perhaps polygraphs and other items being intensified so that this can't happen in the future.

Again, Norah said it well, it's not about whether the President was in danger this time. It's whether or not you need to make changes, so the American people can have confidence in all of their workforce from the GSA to the Secret Service.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Congressman, I want to thank you for coming-- coming in on short notice--

REPRESENTATIVE DARRELL ISSA (overlapping): Thanks, Bob.

BOB SCHIEFFER: --we appreciate it. Thanks to both of you, you too, Norah.

All this during a week when North Korea defied world opinion and test-fired an intercontinental missile that exploded after takeoff, not to mention multiple bombings overnight. We're told that the American embassy in Afghanistan is in lockdown right now. There was new artillery shelling in Syria. Someone who knows about all of that, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee John McCain is with us now. And thank you, Senator McCain, for coming in.

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