Rep. Peter King: White House security breach "absolutely inexcusable"

That a man managed to jump the White House fence, dart across the lawn and actually enter the doors of the North Portico is "absolutely inexcusable," Rep. Peter King said on "Fox News Sunday," calling for a full investigation into "what happened, why it happened and what's being done to make sure it never happens again."

A member of the House Homeland Security Committee, the New York Republican said he's "sure" that Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, will set a hearing to determine how the incident Friday occurred under Secret Service's watch. It's just the latest in a series of embarrassing slip-ups that have exposed glaring deficiencies in the agency's protection of the president and the first family.

Officials originally suggested the reason agents didn't shoot the suspect, Omar Gonzalez, as he sprinted across the lawn or release guard dogs to detain him was because he appeared unarmed.

"He could have had a body bomb; he could have a vest on," King said. In fact, Gonzalez was carrying a two-and-a-half-inch folding knife with a serrated blade in his right front pocket.

"There can be a lot of conspiracies against a president, a lot of complex assassination plots," King went on. "This is the most basic, the most simple type of procedure and how anyone, especially in these days of ISIS, and we're concerned about terrorist attacks, someone could actually get into the White House without being stopped is inexcusable."

Appearing Sunday on "Face the Nation," House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, suggested the agency has become lax in its protection measures over time.

"One of the biggest problems in a static security force is atrophy of concern," Rogers said. "And I think what you have seen is that they're not doing their audits, their checks, test runs to make sure that people are up to the right standard.

"...It's just a matter of the Secret Service upping their game to make sure that they can maintain that every detail matters," Rogers continued. "A door locked, a quick reaction when somebody hits the fence and over the gate. I think they're going to have reinstate some of these ongoing [self-audits] about what activities they participate in."

The Secret Service is among the nation's most elite law enforcement units, but it has been beset by scandal over the last several years. In 2012, more than a dozen agents and officers were involved in a prostitution scandal during President Obama's trip to Cartagena, Colombia. And in March this year, three Secret Service agents were sent home from Amsterdam ahead of a presidential trip there after an episode involving public intoxication.

Late Saturday, the White House released a statement reiterating Mr. Obama's "full confidence" in the agency and promising a "thorough review of the event on Friday evening."