You may remember a rash of media reports in August and September about a claim that assassination threats directed at President Obama are up 400 percent over previous presidents, stretching the Secret Service to its limits. The claim came from a book by NewsMax's Ronald Kessler, "In the President's Secret Service."
In the wake of the White House party crashers media blitz, Kessler has again gotten attention, saying the Secret Service has been cutting corners since 2003, and may be endangering Obama.
But Director of the Secret Service Mark Sullivan begged to differ at a Congressional hearing over the party crasher incident today:
"The threats are not up," Sullivan said, adding that they receive about the same amount of threats against Obama as they did for presidents Clinton and Bush.
He also specifically claimed the 400-percent figure was incorrect and added, according to CBS' Mark Knoller:
Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan tells House committee reports of greater threats against Pres. Obama are not true.
Rick Sanchez of CNN, The Daily Kos, and other left-leaning outlets happily repeated the story of increased threats, despite its right-wing source, as it dovetailed nicely with the narrative of increasing and dangerous Obama opposition set to explode into racist, right-wing violence.
Think Progress knocked RNC Chairman Michael Steele for being skeptical of the figure. It's possible to be duly concerned as an American citizen about the safety of the president, yet also have a faith in American society that leads one to be skeptical of Kessler's claims. It now looks like Steele had good reason to be skeptical, and that the 400-percent story became yet another bogus peg for one of the media's and the Left's favorite storylines-the imminent dissolution of our peaceful Republic at the hands of racist Tea Partiers.
Update: The officers who are responsible for letting the Salahis into the White House state dinner are on administrative leave and may be fired.
