The U.S. Secret Service lashed out at The Atlantic’s Washington editor at large for a series of Tweets officials said were completely false.
Steve Clemons, Washington editor at large for The Atlantic, began a series of Tweets on Thursday claiming that Secret Service manager-level personnel were forced to resign and were escorted out of the Old Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB).
Over the course of the next hour, Clemons continued to Tweet the erroneous information and included statements he attributed to Secret Service managers.
Breitbart Texas reached out to the Secret Service who confirmed they contacted Clemons via Twitter advising him his story was not accurate. “His story was false,” Secret Service Spokesman Joe Casey told Breitbart Texas in a phone conversation Friday night. “It was not Secret Service personnel who were fired or escorted out of the building.”
It appears Clemons was in a rush to get his story out before confirming his facts because he had a plane to catch from Tokyo to Washington, D.C.
The Washington Examiner actually contacted the Secret Service and reported that officials denied Clemons report calling it “absolutely false.” The Washington news outlet described Clemons as, “a longtime left-wing think tank writer who now serves as the Washington editor at large of the Atlantic and National Journal.”
“He has retracted his false report,” Secret Service Spokesman Casey told Breitbart Texas.
After getting wifi on his flight, Clemons began to realize his error and backtracked on his Tweets.
Clemons admitted he made an assumption about what agency the fired workers reported to instead of getting a statement from Secret Service or the White House.
In apparent frustration, the Secret Service Tweeted directly at Clemons advising, “Your reporting continues to be false. Still waiting for you to contact us for official statement.”
Clemons apologized for his error several times. Late Friday evening, he responded to a reader who appeared to be concerned with fake news reported by journalists. He tweeted, “I get that. But there is good journalism out there.”
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.