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Sounds real fishy and I think we all know how it will end.

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Kenneth Tate, a security guard assigned to cover the president’s visit to  the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lost his job after he tried  to take a photograph of the departing motorcade, which angered Secret Service agents.

ATLANTA — Kenneth Tate toiled for years as a construction worker and corrections officer, and he has no doubt that his last job — working as a $42,000-a-year private security guard at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — was the best he ever had.

The high point was an afternoon seven weeks ago when he was assigned to accompany President Obama, who was visiting the agency’s headquarters here for a briefing on the Ebola epidemic. As an African-American born in Chicago, he was going to meet the nation’s first black president, a man he deeply admired.

But by the time Obama’s visit was over, Tate was on the way to losing his job.

As Obama’s motorcade was preparing to leave the CDC, Tate tried to take a picture on his cellphone as a memento. Angry Secret Service agents told him he had gotten too close to the Beast, as the presidential limousine is known. When the agents relayed to Tate’s bosses what had happened, they reacted angrily.

“This was unjust and has been a nightmare,” Tate, 47, said in an interview last week.

An investigation conducted shortly after Obama’s visit revealed that Tate was carrying a CDC-issued firearm, a violation of Secret Service protocols.

The Washington Examiner first revealed that Obama had been on an elevator with a CDC security guard who was carrying a gun.

Some news-media organizations, as well as Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said — erroneously — that the security guard had been convicted of felonies. Tate had been arrested several times, including for robbery and assault, but never convicted.

“From the reports, I was some stranger that entered the elevator,” Tate said in an interview here at the office of his lawyer, Christopher Chestnut. “I mean, I was appointed.”

The Secret Service and the CDC have not released a chronology of what occurred that day.  A Secret Service official, who was given a summary of Tate’s account, said it was largely consistent with what an agency investigation had found.

William  Banks, president of Professional Security, the private firm that was Tate’s employer, said in an email that Tate’s description of the day’s events “are not correct,” though he declined to say what was inaccurate. He confirmed that Tate “did not have any felony or misdemeanor convictions.”

According to Tate, the day Obama traveled to the CDC started the way every workday did: being issued a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and two magazine clips. Tate said he holstered the weapon on his belt under his suit jacket.

He was then told by his supervisors that he was going to operate the service elevator Obama was going to use.

Around 2:25 p.m., the presidential motorcade arrived at the back entrance of the CDC. On the elevator ride, Tate said, the president struck up a conversation.

“He acknowledged me, said, ‘How are you doing?’ He said, ‘What’s your name?’ I told him my name, and he extended his hand, shook my hand, and I said it’s a pleasure to meet him. And I proceeded to escort him upstairs.”

After Obama’s meetings, Tate took him back down to where the limousine was waiting. After the president got in, Tate tried to take a picture. He said he thought nothing of it because he had taken photos of other dignitaries  — including one with Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.

When a Secret Service agent waved at him to get back, Tate said he headed into the building.

An agent he passed on his way inside said someone was probably going to lose his job because no one was allowed so close to the limousine.

A few minutes later, he said, his bosses angrily pulled him aside. Secret Service agents then took him into a conference room to question him.

He said the Secret Service ordered him to delete the pictures of the limousine.  After the Secret Service interview was completed, Tate’s bosses took away his CDC badge. The next week he was given his letter of termination.

Tate said he still has not been provided with an explanation from the CDC or the contractor about why he was fired.

 
 
 
Last edited by Bestworking
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