U.S. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson was grilled on Tuesday during a Congressional inquiry about the Sept. 19 security breach in which an armed intruder evaded White House security and made it to the executive mansion before getting apprehended.

Pierson was on the hot seat for two major security lapses at the White House with the most recent that involves Omar Gonzales, who scaled a fence and reached further into the mansion than the Secret Service initially reported.

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The inaccuracy of the initial report apparently infuriated both Democrats and Republicans who grilled Pierson for three hours.

U.S. Secret Service officials earlier said Gonzales was apprehended at the main entry, The Washington Post reported. An unnamed source told Fox News that it was an off-duty Secret Service sniper who tackled the intruder at the far end of the Green Room.

Pierson defended her agency, citing that mistakes were committed by officers and agents who ignored standard operating procedures in responding to threats.

She did not explain, however, why the public was misled about how far inside the White House the intruder managed to reach.

Pierson claimed full responsibility for the incident and promised to launch a full investigation on the agency's security procedures.

She called the breach "unacceptable" and told the panel that on Friday, she briefed the president on measures to shore up White House security.

But this apparently is not enough for lawmakers who stopped short of asking for Pierson's resignation and demanded an independent review by a separate agency, USA Today reported.

Hours before the hearing, details of another security failure surfaced.

The Washington Examiner first reported that an armed man with criminal record rode with the president during his visit at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on September 16.

The incident violated the protocol banning everyone except Secret Service agents to be armed around the president.

The latest incidents are just two of the many embarrassing security blunders of the agency tasked with protecting the U.S. president in recent years.

In 2011, it reportedly took four days for the Secret Service to determine a shooting incident that occurred while members of the first family were at the White House.

Tagspolitics, United States Secret Service, julia pierson, Omar Gonzales