Top Democrat: Fire more Secret Service agents

A top democrat is calling for the firing of more Secret Service agents following the agency's recent drunk driving scandal, calling the news "extremely frustrating."

"I am extremely upset about it," Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation. "And it's extremely frustrating, to see an agency that is supposed to be the number one elite protective agency in the world protecting the most important person in the world - the most powerful person in the world - to operate like this."

The ranking member of the House Oversight Committee also wanted more heads to roll over the scandal, saying that Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy needs to rid the agency of some agents that "should not be there."

"I'm very impressed with the things that [Clancy's] done already," Cummings said. "But now I think he's going to have to begin to get rid of even more people. There are certain people that should not be there."

Though he praised Clancy's record since the resignation of embattled former director Julia Pierson, who stepped down from her post after investigations into White House fence-jumpers, Cummings maintained that there was still more room for improvement.

"Director Clancy has come in and he has made many, many changes. As a matter of fact, he's now gotten rid of the half of the top folks in the agency," the Democratic legislator said. "But clearly this latest incident shows we've still got a lot of work to be done."

"You cannot have supervisors telling the rank-and-file that they can't do their job," the Maryland representative continued. He expressed even more exasperation over an alleged obstruction of the drunk driving investigation: "Give me a break," Cummings said of the lack of a sobriety test.

Cummings, along with House Oversight Chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz, recently sent a letter to the Secret Service head asking for all documentation of the incident to be submitted to the committee.

Cummings concluded that there's a "cultural of complacency and mediocrity" at the agency, and noted that Congress is "going to have to do a deep dive."

"One thing I am glad about is that republicans and democrats agree on this," he said, "that we've got to put a high powered microscope on this agency and address some of these issues."