Obama picks Secret Service director

President Barack Obama on Wednesday appointed Joseph Clancy, who had guided the Secret Service on an interim basis for the last four and a half months, to be the agency’s permanent director.

The former head of Obama's security detail, Clancy “has demonstrated that he was willing to conduct a candid, cleareyed assessment of the shortcoming of that agency, and to look at needed reforms and implement them,” said the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest. “And that, precisely, is why he has been promoted to this permanent role.”

According to the New York Times, in picking Clancy, the Obama administration dismissed calls by critics on Capitol Hill and members of a special Department of Homeland Security panel who said that a string of embarrassing personnel and security episodes had made it clear that the agency should be run by an outsider.

Read more from the New York Times.