Centers for Disease Control and Prevention security guard Kenneth Tate was fired shortly after he was assigned to escort President Obama to an Ebola briefing at his employer's headquarters in September.
That day, Tate was so excited about his assignment of escorting the President of the United States to and from his limousine, the Beast, that when the motorcade left, he took pictures on his phone. This angered Secret Service agents who said he got too close to the Beast. According to The New York Times, Tate was taken and questioned in a conference room.
Tate was ordered to delete the photos, his CDC badge was revoked, and a week later, he was fired.
Tate explains to the NYT that he was "nervous" and "upset" because he was unsure what was going on. He recalled the president being very nice to him inside an elevator:
He acknowledged me, said, ‘How you are 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.
An additional anomaly in the report notes a Secret Service agent, also on the elevator, dubbing Tate's encounter with Obama "remarkable," saying the president took two years to acknowledge him.
As the investigation unfolded, it was discovered that Tate had been carrying a CDC standard issue .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and two loaded magazines he kept under his jacket, a direct violation of Secret Service directives which states that only the president's personal security are allowed a weapon. This revelation came on the same day embattled agency director Julia Pierson was on the witness stand answering questions about how an individual was able to jump the White House fence and enter the residence. Pierson never mentioned Tate's weapons violation to the White House, the report notes.
In the end, Tate lost his $42,000-per-year job and remains unemployed. The 47-year-old Chicagoan recalls that day as an "unjust nightmare." Tate told the NYT, "It was something to tell my mom — if I meet him everything will be complete. I didn’t know it was going to be my job.”
